Source: United States Department of Justice Criminal Division
The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a permanent injunction yesterday against West Palm Beach, Florida, tax return preparer Gregory Salgado, both individually and doing business as GMJ Real Investments Inc. and doing business as Cuba Salgado Tax & Real Estate.
The injunction bars Salgado from preparing tax returns, working for or having any ownership stake in any tax preparation business, assisting others prepare tax returns or set up business as a preparer and transferring or assigning customer lists to any other person or entity. The court also ordered Salgado to pay $85,000 in ill-gotten gains he received from his return preparation business. Salgado agreed to both the injunction and the order to pay $85,000.
The complaint alleged that Salgado pleaded guilty in 2012 to filing a false personal return and filing a false return for another taxpayer, and the IRS subsequently assessed more than $500,000 in civil penalties against him for willfully underreporting tax on returns he prepared for customers. According to the complaint, neither Salgado’s conviction, 33-month incarceration nor civil penalties altered his behavior. After his release from prison in August 2015, Salgado continued to prepare thousands returns for customers that either reduced their tax liability or inflated their refund claims. He did this largely by falsifying or overstating itemized deductions, fabricating or overstating business income and expenses and falsifying filing statuses and dependents.
As a result of the court’s order, Salgado must send notice of the injunction to each person for whom he or his business prepared federal tax returns, amended tax returns or claims for refund between Jan. 1, 2019, to the present. Additionally, the court ordered Salgado post a copy of the injunction at all locations where he conducts business and on his business’s website.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.
Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS also offers 10 tips to avoid tax season fraud and ways to safeguard their personal information.
In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s 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.