Department of Justice Seal Department of Justice
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2005
WWW.USDOJ.GOV
TAX
(202) 514-2007
TDD (202) 514-1888

FEDERAL JUDGE IN VIRGINIA BARS NORFOLK MAN FROM PREPARING FEDERAL TAX RETURNS FOR OTHERS

Hampton Roads-area Return Preparer Used the Bogus “Claim of Right” Doctrine

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has barred Anthony McBryde, of Norfolk, Virginia, from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The preliminary injunction order, entered by Judge Walter D. Kelley, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, also requires McBryde to give the government a list identifying his customers’ mailing and e-mail addresses and taxpayer identification and telephone numbers, to provide the government copies of all the returns he has prepared for customers since January 2000, and to mail copies of the order to his customers. According to court filings, McBryde is a City of Norfolk code inspector who prepared for customers federal income tax returns containing improper deductions that fraudulently eliminated or reduced customers’ reported taxable income. He allegedly has prepared at least 187 returns containing deductions based on the so-called “claim of right” doctrine, which courts have rejected as frivolous. He also advised his clients to claim deductions for nondeductible personal expenses, such as residential gas and electricity bills. The government’s complaint alleges that McBryde prepared returns in the Hampton Roads area, including Norfolk, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach, charging customers a flat rate of approximately $60 to $130 per return.

“The Justice Department is working energetically with the IRS to halt fraudulent tax return preparation,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “Fraudulent preparers not only cheat the IRS, but also cheat their customers by exposing them to possible civil and criminal penalties.”

More information about this case is available at . This suit is part of an ongoing Justice Department and IRS crackdown on preparers of false and fraudulent tax returns. More information about these cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm. The “claim of right” doctrine is number five on the IRS’s 2005 list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams, the complete list of which is available at . More information about the Tax Division is available at .

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