Federal Court Bars Florida Woman from Preparing Tax Returns for Others

WASHINGTON – A Florida woman has been permanently barred from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Department of Justice announced today. The injunction order, to which Milagros Espinal consented, requires her to provide a copy of the order to her customers, publish a copy of the order in The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, and turn over to the government information identifying her customers.

According to the complaint, since at least 2004, Espinal, of Hialeah, Fla., has routinely prepared tax returns containing fabricated or overstated deductions and improper or false claims for tax credits, such as the earned-income tax credit and the child tax credit. The government estimates that her return preparation resulted in an understatement of her customers’ federal income tax liabilities of $10 million or more between 2004 and 2007. She allegedly prepared at least 2,000 returns during that period.

Additional information about the department’s recent efforts to stop fraudulent claims for tax credits is available here . In the past 10 years, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the department’s website .