JUSTICE DEPARTMENT FILES SUIT SEEKING INJUNCTION AGAINST
TEXAS MAN FOR PROMOTING HOME-BASED BUSINESS TAX SCAM

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that it has filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in Sherman seeking to bar Plano resident Harry Anderson from promoting an alleged sham tax scheme. The suit alleges that Anderson falsely tells customers that by creating a home-based business using the “Tax Toolbox” system, their businesses will be a “magic wand” that can make “taxes disappear.”

The Justice Department complaint specifically alleges that Anderson falsely promises his customers that by setting up a home-based business they can deduct personal travel, meals, golf, cars, medical expenses, their children’s allowances, as well as other non-deductible personal expenses. According to the complaint, Anderson sells the “Tax Toolbox” scheme at seminars in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and nationwide over the Internet.

“People who promote or use tax scams are cheating not only the federal treasury, but also all taxpaying Americans,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “The Justice Department is using all appropriate civil and criminal tools to put tax con artists out of business.”

The complaint against Anderson states he is a “sales consultant” for Tax Toolbox, Inc. The Justice Department brought a similar injunction case in federal court in Nashville, Tennessee against Daniel Gleason, president and CEO of Tax Toolbox, Inc. In that case, Justice Department attorneys filed a 24-page brief detailing Gleason’s numerous false statements about the tax benefits of the Tax Toolbox, as well as his false statements to customers convincing them to buy the product. Information about the Gleason case and copies of the complaint and preliminary injunction papers in that case are available at www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv03225.htm.

The Justice Department has sought and obtained injunctions against a number of tax-scam promoters. Information on an injunction entered last week in Orlando against a home-based business tax scam promoter can be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv03698.htm.

More information about injunction cases against other tax-scheme promoters is available at www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2003.htm. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at www.usdoj.gov/tax.