The government is seeking an injunction to permanently bar a Bronx accountant from preparing or filing federal tax returns on behalf of others.
The complaint alleges that Rafael Alvarez and Atax New York have filed fraudulent tax returns on behalf of their customers in order to reduce their customers’ tax liability and generate refunds to which those customers were not entitled.
“Tax return preparers who regularly cheat the tax system by preparing fraudulent federal income tax returns for their customers should not be permitted to continue in business,” said U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss. “This office will work with the IRS to shut down return preparers who fleece the Treasury by claiming improper deductions or credits for their customers.”
Located at 5536 Broadway, Atax prepared and filed over 36,000 federal income tax returns from 2016 to 2019. In preparing those returns, Atax and Alvarez allegedly filed false federal income tax returns for their customers by fabricating, among other things, unreimbursed business expenses, charitable contributions, capital loss carryovers and tuition expenses. Many tax returns also falsely claimed “head of household” status for their customers as part of this scheme, even by using social security numbers belonging to deceased individuals in claiming dependents.
The complaint also asks the court to order the defendants to turn over the fraudulent profits they earned.
