FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TAX

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, (202) 514-2007

2006 TDD (202) 514-1888
WWW.USDOJ.GOV

Justice Department Asks Federal Court

to Bar Flea Market Tax Preparer
from Preparing Federal Tax Returns
for Others
Florida Woman Allegedly Promotes Scam Claiming
Bogus Fuel Tax Credits for Customers
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today that it has sued a
federal income tax preparer in U.S. District Court in Miami seeking to bar her from
preparing tax returns for others. According to the government’s civil injunction
complaint, Tashanna McFarland of Miramar, Fla., prepared federal tax returns
claiming fraudulent fuel tax credits, a scam that the complaint explains is a serious
enforcement problem for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The suit alleges that
McFarland operates her tax preparation business out of a booth at a flea market in
Miami.

Federal law imposes a fuel tax on gasoline and diesel fuel sold in the United States.
The tax is included in the purchase price at the pump. Businesses can claim a fuel
tax credit in certain rare circumstances, but most businesses and consumers who use
cars or trucks on roads and highways are not eligible for the credit. According to the
government’s complaint, McFarland claimed the fuel credit on her customers’
returns so they could claim tax refunds to which they were not entitled.

The complaint says that on a return for one customer—a babysitter—McFarland

claimed that the customer purchased 16,451 gallons of gasoline for business-related
purposes. The suit notes that for such a claim to be accurate, the babysitter (whose
total income for the year was $9,316) would have had to spend approximately
$36,192 for gasoline that year—nearly four times her total income—and would had
to have driven approximately 246,765 miles during the year, an average of 676
miles each day, seven days a week.

The government complaint alleges that McFarland has prepared at least 970 returns
since 2003 and the IRS has identified over $1.5 million dollars in fraudulent fuel tax
credits on McFarland-prepared returns. “People who have their returns prepared by
others should review them carefully to make sure they are truthful,” said Eileen J.
O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division.
“The preparer who seems to be saving you taxes now is setting you up for trouble
later, when the IRS realizes that you filed a false return and obtained a larger
refund, or paid less in taxes, than you should have.”

“This problem is primarily being caused by unscrupulous tax return preparers

located across the country," said Kathy Petronchak, Commissioner of the IRS Small
Business / Self Employed Division. "The IRS is working closely with the
Department of Justice to stop this behavior."

Since 2001, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained more than 215
injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of
fraudulent returns. Information about these cases is available on the Justice
Department Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. More
information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at
http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

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