Tax Preparers' Hall of Shame: A federal court has permanently barred tax preparer

New inductee of the Tax Preparers' Hall of Shame goes to Cynthia Carter.

A federal court has permanently barred tax preparer Cynthia Carter from preparing federal tax returns for others, according to the Justice Department. The civil injunction order, to which Carter consented without admitting the allegations against her, alleged that Carter, who does business as Cynthia's Tax Service, prepared returns for customers that reported false income and expenses and falsely claimed several tax credits, including the First-time Homebuyer Credit. The complaint alleged that Carter claimed the credit on her customers' returns even though the customers had not bought new homes and were ineligible for the credit, and that the IRS paid more than $900,000 to Carter's customers. The complaint also alleged that she claimed fabricated employee business expense deductions and EICs on her customers' returns. According to the complaint, the IRS estimates that Carter's fraudulent tax preparation could have resulted in $4.25 million or more in lost revenue to the government.

Congrats goes out to Ms. Carter. Thank you for making tax prepares look bad! I hope you enjoy your ban.