Federal Court Permanently Bars San Diego Accountant from Preparing Tax Returns That Understate Income

A federal court has permanently barred Robert Jensen, a certified public accountant from San Diego, from providing tax advice or preparing federal tax returns that illegally attempt to reduce customers’ taxable income, the Justice Department announced today.

The civil injunction order, to which Jensen agreed without admitting the government’s allegations, prevents Jensen from preparing tax returns that improperly deduct the personal expenses of customers or that attempt to reduce a customer’s taxable income through the unlawful use of pension plans, stock ownership plans or retirement plans. The order also bars Jensen from providing tax advice to, or preparing the federal tax returns of, any individual or entity that Jensen knows is a customer of co-defendant Scott Waage.

The government complaint in the case alleged that Jensen worked with Waage, a San Diego tax lawyer, to help clients evade income taxes and illegally circumvent pension plan rules. According to the civil injunction suit, Waage promoted schemes that helped customers evade taxes through the use of bogus deductions, while Jensen prepared the customers’ tax returns claiming the bogus deductions. The government alleged that the IRS audited more than1,000 tax returns as a result of the pair’s alleged tax schemes, and it estimated that the harm to the U.S. Treasury from the schemes exceeded $10.8 million. The civil injunction case against Waage remains pending.

In the past decade, 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 .

Related Documents:
Stipulated Order and Judgment of Permanent Injunction (Robert O. Jensen) (PDF)