The Justice Department has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida seeking to enjoin Florida-based return preparers Cedric Reid, Juan Santana, and Reid’s business, Advance Tax Group Inc. (Defendants) from preparing federal income tax returns for others. Defendants’ offices are located in Daytona Beach and Ocala, Florida, the complaint says.
The complaint alleges that Defendants prepare federal income tax returns for customers on which they claim fraudulent deductions and credits, purposely underreporting the tax their customers owe and claiming refunds their customers are not entitled to receive. Specifically, the complaint alleges that Defendants prepared returns that falsified filing status; reported false or inflated business expenses and losses; and claimed false fuel tax credits, education credits, and other credits. According to the complaint, Defendants used the false information they reported to maximize their customers’ earned income tax credit (EITC) and failed to follow the IRS’s EITC due diligence requirements.
The government alleges in the complaint that Defendants caused an estimated tax loss of more than $7 million in 2023 and 2024 alone.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Civil Division’s Tax Litigation Branch made the announcement. Tax Litigation Branch attorneys Meredith Hollman and Amanda Cornwell are handling the case.
Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.
In the past decade, the Department of Justice has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Civil Division, Tax Litigation Branch with details.
