The United States has sued two federal income tax preparers and their business, seeking to bar them from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. According to the government’s civil injunction complaint, Anthony L. Green and Nicole A. Baine, who operate a business called TAS Services in Durham, N.C., prepared at least 84 federal income tax returns for customers claiming fraudulent fuel tax credits, a scam that the complaint says is a serious enforcement problem for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

The complaint alleges that Green and Baine fraudulently prepared a return for one customer—a gospel singer––that claimed that he purchased 6,214 gallons of diesel fuel for off-highway business use. The suit notes that for the claim to be accurate the gospel singer (whose total income for the year was less than $2,341) would have to have spent approximately $12,248 to purchase that volume of fuel, and would have to have driven approximately 24,280 offroad miles during the year, an average of 340 miles each day of the year.

The government complaint alleges that the IRS has identified more than $150,000 in fraudulent fuel tax credits in returns TAS Services prepared.

The Justice Department obtained an injunction in April against a Miami tax preparer in a case involving allegations of similar fraudulent fuel tax credits. http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv07254.htm

Since 2001 the Justice Department has obtained injunctions against more than 240 tax preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information on those cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2007.htm. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax