Federal Court in Georgia Shuts Down Tax Return Preparer

A federal court permanently barred Larry J. Heath, a Cartersville, Ga., area tax preparer who operated Heath’s Income Tax, Heath & Hames Income Tax and Heath’s Income Tax II, from preparing tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, to which Heath agreed without admitting the allegations against him, was signed by Judge Harold L. Murphy of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. The government’s complaint in the injunction suit was brought against both Larry Heath and his brother, Andrew R. Heath. The case against Andrew Heath remains pending.

The government complaint alleged that Larry Heath and his businesses repeatedly prepared federal tax returns that unlawfully understated customers’ federal tax liabilities. The suit alleged that Larry Heath concocted bogus losses, expenses, education credits, business expenses and charitable contributions, which he falsely reported on his customers’ federal-income-tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) previously suspended Larry Heath’s IRS-issued electronic filing identification number (EFIN) because of the large number of erroneous returns he prepared, according to the complaint. Larry Heath then supposedly “sold” his business to two different women and used their EFINs to continue to file tax returns, the complaint alleged. The injunction applies to the businesses that were purportedly sold, Heath & Hames Income Tax and Heath’s Income Tax II.

Claiming bogus tax refunds is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams .

In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax fraud promoters and unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website .

Related Materials:

Heath Injunction Order