Justice Department Sues to Shut Down Montgomery, Alabama, Tax Return Preparer

The United States filed a complaint today to bar Laquanda O. Gilmore (aka Laquanda Garrott) and her company, L&g Associates LLC, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced.  The complaint alleges that Gilmore has prepared returns that falsely claim fuel-tax and earned income tax credits.

According to the complaint, Gilmore has repeatedly and intentionally claimed bogus fuel-tax credits for her customers.  The fuel-tax credit is available only to taxpayers who operate farm equipment or off-highway business vehicles.  It is not available for vehicles driven on highways , nor is it available for fuel used for commuting to and from work.  The complaint alleges that Gilmore prepared returns that claimed absurdly large fuel-tax credits for taxpayers who worked at national retail businesses. 

The complaint also alleges that Gilmore repeatedly prepared tax returns that improperly claimed the earned income tax credit (EITC).  To claim the EITC, a taxpayer must have “earned income.”  According to the complaint, Gilmore repeatedly claimed that her customers earned income from wages or salaries, even though Gilmore did not attach any Forms W-2, which provide information about an employee’s income and tax withholdings, to those customers’ returns.  According to the complaint, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) records indicate that no Forms W-2 were issued to those customers in the years at issue.

Return-preparer fraud is one of the IRS’   Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014 .  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 fraudulent 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.