from owning or operating a tax return preparation business and preparing tax returns for others.
The complaint alleges that Darryl Madison operated and prepared returns through Madison Tax Services. The complaint alleges that Madison and his contractors – Eugene, Yvette Madison and Brown – prepared and filed tax returns that falsely reduced their customers’ taxable income and improperly increased their customers’ refunds through a variety of schemes, including inflating real estate expenses, falsifying charitable donation deductions, fabricating or inflating business losses and falsely claiming residential energy credits to which their customers were not entitled.
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 guidance on the credentials and qualifications that taxpayers should seek from their return preparer.
In addition, IRS Free File , a public-private partnership, offers free online tax preparation and filing options on IRS partner websites for individuals whose adjusted gross income is under $79,000. For individuals whose income is over that threshold, IRS Free File offers electronic federal tax forms that can be filled out and filed online for free. The IRS has tips on how seniors and individuals with low to moderate income can get other help or guidance on tax return preparation, too.
In the past decade, the 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 this page