FEDERAL COURT IN TEXAS BARS
DALLAS-AREA MAN FROM SELLING HOME-BUSINESS TAX SCHEME

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced that a federal court has permanently barred Harry F. Anderson of Plano, Texas, from promoting a home-based business tax scheme. The civil injunction order was entered by Judge Richard A. Schell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in connection with a suit the Justice Department filed last December. Anderson consented to the injunction without admitting wrongdoing. The order also requires him to turn over his customer list to the Justice Department and to send copies of the order to his customers.

The complaint in the case alleged that Anderson falsely told customers that they could create purported home-based businesses, using a “Tax Toolbox” system as a “magic wand” that can make “taxes disappear.” The complaint also alleged that Anderson falsely promised his customers that by setting up a purported home-based business they could deduct such non-deductible expenses as personal travel, meals, golf, cars, medical expenses, and their children’s allowances. According to court papers, Anderson primarily marketed the scheme to customers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but had customers located throughout Texas, Oklahoma, and Missouri. More information about the case and a copy of the complaint are available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/03_tax_722.htm.

“There is no magic formula for eliminating income taxes. If a tax promotion sounds too good to be true, it undoubtedly is,” said Eileen J. O'Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “People who buy tax reduction schemes are doing worse than wasting their money - they’re buying a ticket to penalties and interest and the potential for criminal prosecution.”

The Tax Toolbox scheme that Anderson sold is promoted by Daniel Gleason of Franklin, Tennessee. On March 2, 2004, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee permanently barred Gleason from guaranteeing tax refunds and falsifying his credentials as a tax return preparer. Gleason told customers he was a “lawyer,” but he had never attended law school or taken any state bar examination. In that case, the Justice Department is also seeking to permanently bar Gleason from selling the Tax Toolbox and from preparing federal income tax returns. Information on the Gleason case is available at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/04_tax_130.htm.

Improper home-based business tax schemes are included on the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” list of tax scams, announced earlier this month. More information about the “Dirty Dozen” scams is available at:

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=120803,00.html.

The Justice Department has sought and obtained injunctions recently against a number of tax-scam promoters. More information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website at:

http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2003.htm.

http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2004.htm.

More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.

Michael R. Pahl, a trial attorney with the Justice Department’s Tax Division, represented the United States in this case. The case was referred to the Justice Department by the IRS’s Small Business/Self-Employed Division.

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