Federal Court in Dallas Bars Woman from Preparing Tax Returns for Others

Woman Claimed Bogus Fuel Tax Credits for Customers
WASHINGTON -- A federal court has permanently barred Grace Machoko of Dallas from preparing federal income tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. Judge David C. Godbey of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas held that Machoko, whose business is called Fast Income Tax Services, repeatedly prepared fraudulent tax returns claiming false fuel tax credits.

The court found that Machoko prepared at least 45 tax returns claiming a total of more than $200,000 in fraudulent fuel tax credits. In one example alleged in the government complaint, Machoko claimed that a customer, reportedly a cook, purchased 53,000 gallons of gasoline for off-highway business use in 2005. The customer, whose total reported income for the year was $1,571, would have had to spend approximately $116,000 (assuming $2.20 per gallon) to purchase that volume of gasoline.

“Fraudulent tax preparers should know that the government will continue its efforts to vigorously shut down their illicit operations as quickly as possible,” said Nathan J. Hochman, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “That is why through this effort the Tax Division has obtained more than 340 injunctions to stop the promotion of tax fraud schemes and the preparation of fraudulent returns since 2001" Information about these injunction cases is available on the Justice Department Web site.