Tax Fraud Blotter: Lot of Trouble

Two of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

New York: The U.S. has filed to permanently bar a former preparer Ranti Azeez-Taiwo and his tax prep business from preparing federal returns for others.

The civil complaint against Azeez-Taiwo and his business, Lot Associates Inc., alleges that Azeez-Taiwo prepares federal income tax returns for clients that understate tax liabilities by using fabricated or inflated itemized deductions, particularly charitable deductions and unreimbursed employee business expense deductions and sole-proprietorship business expenses.

According to the complaint, an undercover IRS agent provided Azeez-Taiwo with information that should have resulted in a return showing more than $500 in tax due; Azeez-Taiwo instead prepared a return claiming a refund of more than $500.

The suit adds that in January 2013 a grand jury indicted Azeez-Taiwo on 30 counts of preparing false federal returns for tax years 2006 through 2010 and that he was ultimately convicted on multiple counts and, in March 2014, sentenced to 18 months in prison.

The IRS estimates that Azeez-Taiwo prepared more than 7,000 returns since 2006, adding that IRS audits and examinations of more than 250 returns prepared by Azeez-Taiwo showed that a total tax deficiency for those returns alone exceeds $773,000.

Jackson, Mich.: Tax preparer Richard Williams has received three years in prison and a year of supervised release and been ordered to pay the IRS $60,594 in restitution for 20 counts of tax fraud he was convicted of in February, according to published reports.

In February, a jury found Williams guilty of three counts of submitting false personal returns and 17 counts of aiding and assisting the preparation and filing of false returns, reports said, adding that the charges stem from returns Williams filed in 2004, 2006 and 2007 on which he claimed false business expenses or losses for himself and others.

Williams swindled the IRS out of $578,580, according to court documents cited. Williams declared his own income in 2004 as $1 but was reportedly found to have had a business income of more than $11,000. In a 2006 tax return Williams filed for himself, said news outlets, he claimed a business income of $2 but was found to have a made at least $14,571 and in 2007 he claimed $10 but earned at least $45,998.

He made similar false claims for at least eight of his clients, according to reports, creating alleged companies under their names and claiming net losses and false business expenses.

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