Yesterday, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a preliminary injunction against Miami-area tax return preparer Christopher Brown and Brown’s tax return preparation business Superior Taxes LLC (Defendants).
The court issued the injunction over the defendants’ opposition to the government’s motion, which presented evidence that showed the defendants engaged in a pattern and practice of preparing and filing false returns that understated their customers’ federal income tax liabilities and claimed inflated tax refunds by: (1) claiming incorrect filing statutes, such as “head of household”; (2) fabricating or inflating business losses on Form 1040 Schedule C; (3) falsifying residential energy credits; and (4) fabricating or inflating education credits. Defendants used these schemes to reduce taxable income so that customers could claim the earned income tax credit despite knowing the customers weren’t eligible to claim these deductions and credits.
In addition to finding strong proof that the defendants fabricated deductions and losses, the court determined that the government would face irreparable harm absent a preliminary injunction. The court found Brown’s explanation that he had made a “concerted effort to take more precautions when preparing tax returns” this current tax season was “unavailing” considering the number of “inaccurate returns prepared over several years.”
The injunction bars Brown and Superior Taxes from preparing and filing tax returns for others, working for or having an ownership stake in any tax return preparation business, and advising anyone about the preparation of a tax return and requires Brown and Superior Taxes to post a copy of the preliminary injunction order at every location that they are currently operating for the current tax season.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Civil Division’s Tax Litigation Branch made the announcement.
Attorneys Rachel Iacangelo and Elizabeth Duncan of the Tax Litigation Branch handled this matter.
Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information.
In the past decade, the Department of Justice has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Civil Division, Tax Litigation Branch with details.
