COURT BARS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MAN FROM TAX RETURN PREPARATION

Tax Preparation Firm Allegedly Understated Customers’ Tax Liabilities

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has permanently barred Charles T. Kizer, of Riverside, Calif., from acting as a federal income tax return preparer. The permanent injunction, to which Kizer consented, was entered by Judge J. Spencer Letts of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The court previously entered injunctions in the same case against Jack R. Gosney and Hal J. Clark. Copies of the earlier orders are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv06367.htm.

The government complaint in the suit alleges that the three defendants—operating under the names JRG Financial Group or JRG Associates in Riverside—prepared returns for customers claiming improper deductions for personal expenses and grossly inflated business expense deductions. The complaint asserts that the defendants created fictitious partnerships and sole proprietorships in order to improperly reduce customers’ reported tax liabilities. The government suit alleges that the three men prepared over 8,000 federal tax returns in the past five years for individuals or partnerships. According to the complaint, an IRS audit of 120 returns signed by Gosney, Clark, or Kizner revealed that the three preparers understated their customers’ tax liabilities by an average of $16,000 per return.

Under the terms of the permanent injunction, Kizer must notify his customers of the injunction and give the Justice Department the names, addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers and Social Security numbers of his recent customers.

Since 2001 the Justice Department has obtained injunctions against more than 190 return preparers and tax fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. Information on the Justice Department’s Tax Division is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.