Justice Department Sues to Bar Missouri Woman from Preparing Tax Returns

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department announced today that it has asked a federal court to permanently bar Marva Bilberry of Belton, Mo., from preparing tax returns for others. The civil injunction suit, filed in Kansas City with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, alleges that Bilberry operates a business called Bilberry Bookkeeping & Tax Service that has prepared fraudulent income tax returns for customers in the Kansas City metropolitan area.

According to the government complaint, 98% of the Bilberry-prepared returns that the IRS has examined required adjustments—averaging $3,167 in additional tax per customer. Bilberry allegedly prepared tax returns with inflated medical expenses, employee business expenses, charitable contribution deductions, and home business expenses.

The complaint states that the IRS estimates that Bilberry’s misconduct has cost the federal Treasury more than $2.4 million since 2003. The government complaint asks the court to order Bilberry to give the Justice Department a list of her customers’ names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and Social Security numbers.

Since 2001 the Justice Department has obtained injunctions against more than 230 tax return preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2007.htm. Information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.