Federal Court Bars Southern California Man from Preparing Federal Tax Returns

WASHINGTON - A federal court has permanently barred Dennis Giroud from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order, signed by Judge Virginia Phillips of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, also prevents Giroud, who operates a business called Refunds R Us, from preparing his own tax returns with fabricated income tax withholding and refund claims.

The government complaint alleges that Giroud of Victorville, Calif., prepares tax returns that claim huge fraudulent refunds based on a frivolous theory called “redemption” or “commercial redemption.” The refunds are allegedly based on fabricated income tax withholding reported on false Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Forms 1099-OID submitted with the returns. According to the complaint, Giroud has sought more than $19 million in fraudulent refunds for more than 100 customers and caused the IRS to issue at least $1.2 million in erroneous refunds. Giroud also allegedly requested more than $1.3 million in bogus refunds for himself using this tax fraud scheme.

The court order requires Giroud to produce to the government a list identifying all persons for whom he prepared federal tax returns or claims for refund for tax years 2006 through 2010.

Filing false tax forms, including false withholding claims, is one of the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2011. In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax return preparers and tax fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website .