WASHINGTON - The United States has sued a Bryson City, N.C., tax return preparer seeking to bar her and her company from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit alleges that Jody S. Ball, doing business as Jody Ball Accounting and The Tax Lady Inc., claims bogus deductions and credits on customers’ federal tax returns.

Ball allegedly included fabricated claims for charitable deductions, business expenses and other deductions on tax returns that she and her businesses have prepared since 2006. According to the government’s complaint, Ball, who had penalties imposed against her in 2004 for similar conduct involving customer returns for 2001, 2002 and 2003, prepared more than 1,600 federal income tax returns since 2006. The Internal Revenue Service audited 144 of those returns, and approximately 80 percent of them understated customers’ tax liabilities.

In the past 10 years the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax return preparers and tax fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.