JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SUES TO BAR CALIFORNIA WOMAN FROM PREPARING FEDERAL TAX RETURNS

Fresno-based Preparer Allegedly Helped Customers Use Sham Trusts to Evade Taxes

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today asked a federal court to bar Mary Asher Vincent, of Fresno, California, from preparing federal tax returns for others. The complaint, filed in Fresno in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, alleges that Vincent, also known as Mary Louise Vincent, prepares fraudulent tax returns through her business, Vincent & Associates, LP.

The complaint alleges that Vincent prepares income tax returns for customers who are evading taxes by using sham trusts, of which Vincent is sometimes the trustee. Vincent’s customers allegedly distribute most of their business profits to a series of sham trusts, which the customers ultimately control. Vincent then allegedly prepares tax returns that fail to report the transferred funds as income on the customers’ tax returns, in violation of the law.

“Those who promote tax scams or prepare fraudulent tax returns shift the tax burden to law-abiding taxpayers,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service are working diligently to identify and stop these violators of the tax laws.”

The lawsuit also seeks an order requiring Vincent to give the Justice Department the names, Social Security numbers, mailing and e-mail addresses, and telephone numbers of her customers.

The government has obtained a number of injunctions against promoters of sham trust schemes. Information about them is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04775.htm and http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04745.htm. The Justice Department complaint is part of a continuing nationwide crackdown on the preparation and filing of false or fraudulent tax returns. More information about these cases is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.