In its complaint, the government alleged that Billy Philippe of Broward County, Florida prepared fraudulent tax returns for his customers. The court found that, for purposes of entering an injunction only, Philippe engaged in tax return preparer conduct subject to penalty under the tax laws. Philippe agreed to the civil injunction order entered against him, which requires him to turn over to the United States a list of all persons for whom he prepared federal tax returns since 2012. The court also authorized the United States to monitor Philippe’s compliance with the terms of the injunction.
The government’s complaint against Philippe, the majority owner of Advantage Tax Center Plus Inc., alleged that he prepared income tax returns for customers that fraudulently overstated the amount of the refunds due by falsely claiming refundable credits, including the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and credits for education expenses. The complaint further alleged that Philippe frequently claimed fraudulently inflated wages or self-employment income in order to maximize the amount of EITC, a customer claimed.
According to the complaint, Philippe prepared at least 899 returns from 2011 and 2015. The complaint alleged that audits of 44 returns prepared in 2014 and 2015 revealed that Philippe claimed credits his customers were not entitled to take and/or understated their correct tax liability by more than $300,000 in the aggregate.
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.
You must be logged in to post a comment.