Federal Court Bars Philadelphia Tax Firm and Owner from Preparing Federal Tax Returns

WASHINGTON – A federal court has barred a Philadelphia tax preparation firm and its owner from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.  Friday James, who according to the government complaint is from Landsdowne, Pa., and his business agreed to the permanent injunction order without admitting the allegations against them.

The court had preliminarily enjoined the defendants earlier this year after finding that James “negligently or willfully understated tax liability on many of the federal income tax returns he prepared for his clients.”  In a memorandum accompanying that injunction order, the court identified James’s business as Frika Tax Services in Philadelphia.  At that time the court found that James had claimed the first-time-homebuyer tax credit for customers who did not qualify for it and claimed deductions for business and miscellaneous expenses that were “erroneous, unrealistic or unreasonable.”

In the permanent injunction order, the court required James to provide the government with a list of names and identifying information for all persons for whom he prepared federal tax returns or refund claims for tax years 2008 through 2010.

Return preparer fraud is one of the Internal Revenue Service’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2011.  In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax fraud promoters and unscrupulous tax return preparers.  Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website .