WASHINGTON–(ENEWSPF)–January 28, 2011. On Thursday, a federal court in Chicago permanently barred Sidney Dove, a tax-return preparer from Joliet, Ill., from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced. U.S. District Judge Charles Kocoras also ordered Dove, who does business under the name “Sid’s Tax,” to prepare a list of every person for whom he has prepared a federal income tax return since Jan. 1, 2006, and to provide the list to the government. The court had previously entered a preliminary injunction order against Dove on April 16, 2010.
The court found that an Internal Revenue Service investigation of Dove revealed a pattern of overstated deductions for charitable contributions, employee business expenses and Schedule C business expenses. The court also found that Dove prepared a number of returns that significantly understated individuals’ tax liabilities because they contained positions that had no possibility of being sustained on the merits. For example, according to the court, Dove habitually deducted 10 percent of his customers’ income as charitable donations without ensuring that the customers had documents to support the deductions. The court concluded that a permanent injunction order against Dove was necessary because of his continuous and knowing violations of the tax laws over the last three years and his stated intention to continue preparing tax returns in the future.
The court’s order also requires Dove to mail a copy of the court’s order to all customers for whom he has prepared federal income tax returns.
In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained hundreds of injunctions to stop the promotion of tax-fraud schemes and the preparation of false tax returns. Details of these cases are available on the Justice Department website.
Source: justice.gov
