Justice Department Seeks to Shut DownSan Antonio Tax Return Preparers

The United States has sued Pete Gutierrez and Jeanette Gutierrez, who do business as Fast Cash Refund Express and Fast Cash Refund Express Electronic Services, seeking to bar them and their companies from preparing any federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. In addition to the Gutierrezes, the civil injunction suit also named FCRE Inc., and Fast Cash Refund Express Electronic Tax Service LLC, as defendants.

According to the government complaint, the Gutierrezes, a married couple from San Antonio, use their companies to prepare federal tax returns for customers who claim false and exaggerated personal deductions, business deductions and education and energy tax credits in order to understate the customers’ tax liabilities unlawfully.

According to the complaint, of the tax returns prepared by the Gutierrezes through their companies for 2008 through 2010 that the Internal Revenue Service has audited, over 96 percent resulted in the customers owing additional taxes. The complaint alleges that the understatements of tax on these returns exceeded $2 million.

The government is also seeking a court order requiring the Gutierrezes to provide the government with a list of all persons for whom they have prepared federal tax returns since Jan. 1, 2007.

In the past 10 years, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous return preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.

Related Documents:
Gutierrez Complaint
United States v. FCRE Inc., et al., Final Complaint for Permanent Injunction and Other Relief (PDF)