Tax fraud

A federal court has barred the owner of a dozen Liberty Tax Service franchises in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas after discovering rampant tax fraud, while a Maryland grand jury has indicted the owner and several tax preparers at some Liberty Tax franchises in Baltimore.

A roundup of some of our favorite recent tax fraud cases.

If you’re in the tax preparation business, chances are you’ve had a client experience tax-related identity theft.

Nearly a quarter of Americans think it’s acceptable to lie to the Internal Revenue Service about under-the-table income.

The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration is pursuing fraudsters posing as IRS agents who call to harass taxpayers about fictitious tax debts, calling them back to warn them about their criminal activity and getting the phone company to shut them down.

With a 400 percent surge in reported phone and email phishing and malware schemes this tax season, the American Institute of CPAs is working with Congress, the Internal Revenue Service and its members to combat tax-related identity theft and tax return fraud.

The owner and operator of Grant Tax Service, a tax preparation business in Vineland, N.J., has been indicted by a federal grand jury on 18 counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns and five counts of filing false income tax returns.

The operator of an Atlantic City, N.J.-based tax preparation business has pleaded guilty to filing false claims with government.

Many Americans are willing to delay receiving their tax refunds for up to two months if it would provide the IRS time to combat identity fraud, according to a new survey.

The Internal Revenue Service is sounding the warning about a new tactic from phone scammers pretending to work for the IRS.