FEDERAL COURT PERMANENTLY BARS FLORIDA WOMAN FROM PREPARING TAX RETURNS, PROMOTING ABUSIVE HOME-BASED BUSINESS SCHEME

WASHINGTON, D.C.- The Department of Justice today announced that a federal court in Orlando, Florida, has entered a permanent injunction barring Linda Borden, of Celebration, Florida, from promoting abusive tax schemes, including those involving home-based businesses used to claim improper deductions. The order, to which Borden consented, also permanently bars her from preparing federal income-tax returns for others.

The Justice Department presented evidence to the court that Borden promoted her scheme in 22 states using various businesses to defraud the Federal Treasury of at least $15 million. The court permanently enjoined Borden, and related companies B & B Consulting, Inc; Nex, Inc.; Nexclick, LLC; and New Innovations of Central Florida, Inc., from promoting abusive tax schemes and providing any tax services to others. It further required her to inform her past customers of the permanent injunction and provide a list of her customers to the Justice Department within eleven days.

“Illegal tax schemes harm all taxpaying Americans,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The Justice Department is working to reassure law-abiding taxpayers that tax scam promotions are being shut down.”

Kari M. Larson and Kristin H. Hodges, trial attorneys with the Justice Department’s Tax Division, represented the United States in this case. The case was referred to the Justice Department by the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax. http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

The home-based business scam is one of the scams on the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” list: http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=120803,00.html. More information about home-based business scams is located at http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=107493,00.html; http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=107493,00.html>; and http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/ir-02-13.pdf.

More information about the Justice Department’s efforts against tax-scam promoters can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2004.htm.