FEDERAL COURT BARS NORTH CAROLINA MAN FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS FOR OTHERS

Court Also Orders Thomasville Preparer to Provide Customer Names to the Government

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a North Carolina federal court has barred Oscie K. Parker of Thomasville, North Carolina, from preparing tax returns for others. In entering the order, Judge William L. Osteen of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina barred Parker from advising or assisting anyone in preparing a federal tax return, and from owning or working for a tax-preparation business. The court also ordered Parker to provide the government his customers’ names, mailing and e-mail addresses, and telephone and Social Security numbers.

According to court filings, Parker operated his return-preparation business under the names MPS Tax Service, Fastest Tax Refund Service, Bill Jackson Enterprises, Inc., Agencia De Trabajo Latina, and Providian, Ltd. The suit alleged that Parker prepared returns containing false exemptions and deductions, forged customer signatures on their tax forms, failed to sign his own name to the returns he prepared, and neglected to provide his customers copies of their returns. Parker allegedly prepared at least 269 returns for tax years 2000 through 2003.

“The Justice Department is working diligently with the IRS to halt fraudulent tax return preparation,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “Fraudulent preparers not only cheat the federal treasury, but also cheat their customers by exposing them to possible civil and criminal penalties.”

More information about this case is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv05083.htm. This injunction case is part of an ongoing crackdown on tax preparers who prepare false or fraudulent tax returns. More information about these cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm. More information about the Tax Division is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.