Justice Department Sues to Shut Down Chicago Tax Return Preparer

WASHINGTON – The United States has sued a Chicago tax return preparer to bar her from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.

The civil injunction suit filed in the Northern District of Illinois alleges that Martha A. Jones claims bogus tax deductions on her customers’ federal income tax returns. Jones allegedly includes deductions for fabricated charitable contributions, employee business expenses and other items. According to the government complaint, the Internal Revenue Service examined 56 of the returns that Jones prepared for tax years between 2005 and 2008 and found that all of them contained inaccuracies. The complaint also alleges that Jones fails to sign her customers’ returns and has continued to do so even after being advised that she is legally required to sign the tax returns that she prepares.

The complaint estimates that the tax losses to the United States from Jones’s misconduct could exceed $1 million.

In the past 10 years, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax-return preparers and tax fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.