Federal Court Shuts Down Florida Tax Preparers

Posted by Terri Eyden on Aug 10 2012 1639 printer friendly

A federal court in Miami, Florida, has permanently barred Sharon Angulo and Claudia Zuloaga, both of Miami, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced August 9, 2012.

According to the government complaint in the civil case, Angulo and Zuloaga help customers use Form 1099-OID to report fictitious income tax withholding. The complaint alleges that Angulo and Zuloaga's customers file federal tax returns claiming tax refunds based on the fake withholding.

Original Issue Discount

OID is the excess of an obligation's stated redemption price at maturity over its issue price (acquisition price for a stripped bond or coupon). A discount of less than ¼ of 1 percent of the stated redemption price at maturity, multiplied by the number of full years from the date of issue to maturity, is considered to be zero.
You must prepare a Form 1099-OID for each person who is a holder of record of the obligation if the OID includible in the holder's gross income is at least $10.

- IRS

The complaint states that the defendants have prepared or assisted in the preparation of at least nineteen tax returns reporting false withholding and claiming fraudulent tax refunds totaling more than $3 million.

The court ordered Angulo and Zuloaga to pay to the US Treasury the funds they received from customers who paid them a percentage of the tax refunds received through the scheme. The court also ordered the defendants to provide the government with a list of all persons for whom they prepared federal tax returns or forms since 2008.

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