The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered a permanent injunction against Guary Louima, Guy Telfort, and Tax Houses and Accounting Services Inc., barring them from preparing federal tax returns for others and owning or operating a tax preparation business, the Justice Department announced today.
The court also ordered that Louima, Telfort and the business disgorge $150,000, representing the ill-gotten gains they received for the preparation of tax returns. The defendants agreed to entry of the injunction and disgorgement judgment against them.
In its complaint the government alleged that Louima and Telfort own and operate Tax Houses and Accounting Services Inc. in Lauderdale Lakes, Florida. The government alleged that the defendants prepared tax returns making false or fraudulent claims for the Earned Income Tax Credit by claiming bogus business losses for non-existent businesses, misrepresenting the filing status of their customers, and inflating the number of dependents claimed on their return. Defendants also allegedly prepared returns that improperly lowered their customers’ reported taxable income by falsely claiming deductions for the personal use of their vehicles.
Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has information on its website about selecting 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.
