FEDERAL JUDGE PERMANENTLY BARS NEVADA TAX RETURN PREPARER FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS FOR OTHERS

Henderson Man Prepared Zero-Income Tax Returns

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has permanently barred Larry P. Goodyke of Henderson, Nev., from preparing federal tax returns for others. At a hearing held in Las Vegas, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Philip M. Pro found that Goodyke, individually and doing business as “Consultants by 5” or PC Computerz Tax Service, had prepared at least 550 federal income tax returns for others that understated his customers’ tax liabilities using frivolous theories.

The court determined that Goodyke prepared at least 146 returns that omitted wages from the taxable income reported on the return and at least 413 returns that fraudulently claimed a deduction for wages reported elsewhere on the return. The court also found that Goodyke failed to sign the returns as the paid preparer, also in violation of the tax laws. According to the complaint filed by the United States, Goodyke understated his customers’ tax liabilities by over $10.4 million.

The civil permanent injunction requires Goodyke to provide the government with his customers’ names, addresses, Social Security numbers, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses within 15 days.

The frivolous theories used by Goodyke on his customers’ returns are described in the IRS’s 2006 list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams, posted at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=154293,00.html. Since 2001 the Justice Department has obtained more than 200 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes or the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. More information about this case is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv05493.htm. Information on the Justice Department’s Tax Division is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.