Federal Court Permanently Shuts Down Ohio Tax Return Preparer

A federal court permanently enjoined Mary E. Shade, d/b/a MS Tax, of Piqua, Ohio, from owning or operating a tax return preparation business and preparing tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. Mary E. Shade consented to the relief.

The complaint against Shade, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, alleges that Shade routinely understates her customers’ tax liabilities by fabricating itemized deductions, creating false Schedules C with inflated or fraudulent business losses, and reporting false credits in order to offset their income to generate tax refunds. For example, the government alleges that Shade prepared a return on which she falsely reported that a customer made gifts to charity in the amount of $14,964. The complaint alleges that, over the course of the years 2012 through 2019, Shade filed over 5,500 tax returns, and that by repeatedly understating her customers’ tax liabilities, Shade has caused the United States to lose substantial tax revenue.

“Fraudulent tax return preparers abuse our nation’s tax laws and take advantage of those customers who pay them to file a correct tax return,” said Richard Zuckerman, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the Tax Division.  “We are committed to working with our IRS partners to root out these perpetrators.”

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. 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 website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.