Justice Department Seeks to Shut Down Utah Tax Preparer

The United States has asked a federal court in Salt Lake City to bar Rulon Sandoval, Andrea R. Acosta Hernandez and Latinos Office LLC from preparing tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today.  According to the complaint, the defendants have repeatedly prepared federal tax returns that understate their clients’ federal tax liabilities.  The suit alleges that Sandoval, Acosta and persons working with them under the business name “Latinos Office” falsely claimed or inflated tax credits or fabricated deductions.  The suit also alleges that the defendants submitted returns using false preparer identification numbers or otherwise improperly identified the returns’ preparers.

According to the complaint, the IRS has completed examinations of 47 returns prepared by Sandoval and his associates and that nearly all of those returns understated the filing taxpayer’s liability.  The lawsuit alleges that the harm to the U.S. Treasury as a result of their conduct could be as much as $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.

Related Materials:

United States v. Rulon Sandoval, et al.
Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Relief