A federal court in Orlando, Florida, entered a permanent injunction against Lakeesha Tucker, Lakeesha Tucker LLC, and Simplified Financial Services LLC, barring them from preparing federal tax returns for others and owning or operating a tax preparation business, the Justice Department announced today.
The court previously entered a judgment against all three defendants for $1,628,046.50, after an earlier order stated that this amount was a reasonable approximation of defendants’ ill-gotten gains they received for the preparation of tax returns.
In its complaint, the government alleged that the defendants prepared tax returns making false or fraudulent claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit. Among the misconduct alleged, defendants reported phony business-related income and expenses, and job-related expenses, and claimed false education credits and charitable contributions.
Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.
In the past decade, the Tax Division 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 Tax Division with details.
