JUSTICE DEPARTMENT SEEKS TO BAR TOPSHAM, MAINE RESIDENT FROM PREPARING FEDERAL TAX RETURNS FOR OTHERS

Complaint Alleges that Tax Preparer Inflated Deductions and Credits for Customers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States has brought suit against Carol East Palesky, a Topsham, Maine resident, seeking to bar her from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The government alleges in its complaint that Ms. Palesky, who operates a business that provides tax return preparation and other accounting services under the name East Accounting Services, prepared federal income tax returns claiming inflated deductions and credits for her customers resulting in an understatement of her customers’ tax liabilities.

The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court in Maine, alleges that Ms. Palesky’s conduct interferes with the enforcement of the internal revenue laws and causes irreparable harm to the government and her customers.

Ms. Palesky is currently serving a sixteen-month sentence in the Maine Correctional Center in Windham, Maine, after pleading guilty to one count of theft by misapplication after taking funds from one of her business’s customers. In addition, Ms. Paleksy was convicted in 1996 on federal charges of altering dates on petitions she was collecting for a referendum relating to the local property tax cap in Maine.