Federal Court Shuts Down Atlanta Area Tax Return Preparer

The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in the Northern District of Georgia permanently enjoined the owner of tax preparation businesses in Suwanee, Georgia, from preparing federal tax returns for others.

The complaint filed in the case alleged that Tiffany Nakia Expose of Buford owned and operated Expose Tax & Financial Services Inc. in Suwanee, and that Expose prepared tax returns that understated tax liabilities and/or overstated refunds. According to the court’s opinion, her alleged schemes included understating business income by fabricating or inflating reported business losses; fabricating or overstating itemized deductions; and claiming unsupported education credits. For example, on over 100 returns, Expose falsely claimed that taxpayers attended school at a particular institution despite knowing that they had not done so.  

In granting the United States’ request for injunction, the court found that Expose knowingly prepared and filed hundreds of false returns. It found that she did so despite two separate attempts by the IRS to bring her into compliance, both of which resulted in penalties assessed against her.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. (More information can also be found here.) The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. In addition, IRS Free File, a public-private partnership, offers free online tax preparation and filing options on IRS partner websites for individuals whose adjusted gross income is under $72,000. For individuals whose income is over that threshold, IRS Free File offers electronical federal tax forms that can be filled out and filed online for free.

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’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.