JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SEEKS TO SHUT DOWN DETROIT TAX PREPARER

Firm Allegedly Filed Returns with Bogus Claims

WASHINGTON. – The United States has sued a Detroit tax return preparer, seeking to bar him from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit, filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, alleges that Eric D. Parrish’s Detroit business, E P Professionals LLC, claimed bogus deductions and credits on customers’ federal income tax returns.

According to the government complaint, Parrish is alleged to have included fabricated claims for federal fuel tax credit, telephone excise tax refunds, and other deductions on over 60 tax returns that he prepared since 2004. Fraudulently claiming the fuel tax credit and telephone excise tax refunds are two of the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2007.

The Justice Department this year has obtained injunctions shutting down several tax preparers who allegedly claimed bogus fuel credits. Information on those cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv07254.htm, http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv07487.htm, and http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv07828.htm.