COURT BARS ST. LOUIS TRUCK DRIVER FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS FOR OTHERS

The following press release was published by the US Department of Justice on March 3, 2005. It is reproduced in full below.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2005 WWW.USDOJ.GOV TAX (202) 514-2007 TDD (202) 514-1888 WASHINGTON D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court has permanently barred a St. Louis truck driver, Charles B. Eden, from preparing federal income tax returns for customers. In entering the civil injunction order, Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri found that Eden “continually and repeatedly” understated customers’ tax liabilities on their returns “by fabricating or grossly inflating their tax deductions.” The order describes Eden’s conduct as “fraudulent and deceptive.” The order stated that the IRS estimates that Eden’s activities over the last five years have cost the government nearly $3.5 million.

In addition to permanently barring him from preparing tax returns for others, the court ordered Eden to notify his customers of the injunction and directed him to provide the Justice Department his customers’ names, mailing and e-mail addresses, and phone and Social Security numbers.

“People who prepare false or fraudulent tax returns are cheating not just the federal treasury, but all law-abiding taxpayers,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service are working vigorously to stop these systematic abuses of the tax system.” Justice Department trial attorney Robert D. Metcalfe represented the United States in this case, which Mark J. Stone, a revenue agent with the IRS’s Small Business/Self Employed Division, investigated.

More information about the case is available on the Justice Department website at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04784.htm. The government has obtained numerous injunctions against return preparers who prepare false or fraudulent federal tax returns. Information about these cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm and http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2004.htm. Information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html. 05-094

Source: US Department of Justice