On Wednesday, a federal court in Ohio permanently enjoined a Columbus, Ohio, tax preparer from preparing returns for others and from owning or operating any tax return preparation business in the future.
According to the court’s order, Michael Craig, both individually and doing business as Craig’s Tax Service, consented to the entry of the injunction.
The court’s order requires Craig to send notice of the injunction to each person for whom he prepared federal tax returns or refund claims after January 1, 2022.
According to the government’s complaint, many tax returns that Craig prepared made false and fraudulent claims, including reporting losses for fictitious Schedule C businesses; claiming costs of goods sold (COGS) for types of businesses that cannot legitimately claim COGS and without supporting documentation; inventing or inflating expenses for otherwise legitimate Schedule C businesses; and taking deductions for both cash and non-cash charitable deductions that are either exaggerated or completely fabricated.
According to the complaint, the IRS estimated a tax loss of more than $3.1 million in 2022 alone from tax returns prepared by Craig.
