Justice Department Asks Federal Court to Shut Down Louisiana Tax Preparer

The United States filed a complaint today seeking to bar Joyce Bougere-Keyes, and her business, Joyce Tax & Financial Service LLC, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced.

The civil injunction complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, alleges that Bougere-Keyes, of New Iberia, prepares federal income tax returns for customers that report fabricated and/or inflated business income and expenses to maximize the amount of the Earned Income Tax Credit her customers claim.  Bougere-Keyes has also improperly claimed education credits for ineligible taxpayers.  Since 2009, Bougere-Keyes has prepared over 7,500 individual income tax returns and the loss to the U.S. Treasury caused by her conduct could exceed $1 million.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2013 .  The IRS has some tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.  In the past decade, the Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers.  Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website .   An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page .  If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.

Related Materials:

United States v. Joyce Bougere-Keyes, etc.
Complaint for Permanent Injunction