The Justice Department filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas today seeking to bar a Fort Worth, Texas-area tax return preparer from preparing federal income tax returns for others.
The complaint alleges that Ruben Gonzalez and his employees prepared over 14,000 federal income tax returns from 2021-2023 through a sole proprietorship named “Sin Barreras Income Tax.” According to the complaint, in a substantial number of these tax returns, Gonzalez and others he employed significantly overstated customers’ tax refunds by fabricating or inflating business losses, falsifying charitable donation deductions and falsely claiming energy credits and coronavirus family sick leave credits to which the customers were not entitled.
By repeatedly understating customers’ tax liabilities, the complaint alleges that Gonzalez caused the United States harm of almost $20 million in lost tax revenue from 2021-2023.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.
Attorneys for the Tax Division are handling the case.
Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information.
In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page