DOJ – Tax News: FEDERAL COURT PERMANENTLY BARS BATON ROUGE TAX SERVICE FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS

Baton Rouge, La.-Area Tax Service’s Preparers Allegedly Fabricated and Inflated Business Expenses on Tax Returns 

A federal court has permanently barred Larry Carnell Dixon Sr., a Louisiana tax return preparer, and his business, Dixon’s Tax Service, LLC from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Dixon and Dixon’s Tax Service LLC, consented without admitting the allegations against them, was signed by Judge James Brady of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana.

The government amended complaint alleged that Dixon and the preparers at Dixon’s Tax Service, which has offices in Baton Rouge and Gonzales, La., prepared returns for customers that reported false deductions which generated higher refunds and/or the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a refundable credit that can generate a refund exceeding the amount of income tax paid by an individual taxpayer. 

The amended complaint alleged that Dixon and the preparers at Dixon’s Tax Service fabricated and inflated business expense deductions reported on many of their taxpayers’ Schedule Cs (Forms 1040) for existing and fictional businesses. By allegedly fabricating and inflating these deductions, Dixon and Dixon’s Tax Service reduced a client’s taxable income, which resulted in a reduced tax liability and possibly a higher refund. In addition, Dixon and his preparers have allegedly repeatedly prepared returns that claim the EITC for customers who did not qualify for it. The complaint alleges that Dixon’s alleged misconduct may have cost the United States as much as $39 million.

The IRS lists tax-preparer fraud as one of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams. The Justice Department has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax-return preparers and tax-fraud promoters in the past decade. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.

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