WASHINGTON—The Justice Department announced today that it has filed suit in federal court in Houston seeking to permanently bar Jerome J. Harris from preparing federal income tax returns. According to the government complaint, until his recent imprisonment, Harris operated Jay’s Bookkeeping and Tax Services in Houston.
The civil injunction suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, alleges that Harris prepared federal income tax returns for customers improperly claiming fabricated business deductions. Harris allegedly prepared approximately 511 original and amended tax returns causing an estimated loss to the U.S. Treasury of over $4.5 million.
Last year Harris was sentenced to 57 months in jail and 12 months of supervised release after his criminal conviction for aiding in the preparation of false tax returns. As part of his sentence, Harris was barred from preparing federal income tax returns for others during the period of his supervised release. The civil injunction action seeks to make the ban on preparing returns permanent.
The lawsuit is part of the Justice Department’s efforts to halt the preparation and filing of fraudulent tax returns. More information about these cases is available on the Justice Department Web site at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2006.htm. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax.
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