FEDERAL JUDGE BARS FLORIDA TAX PREPARER
FROM FRAUDULENT PRACTICES

Clearwater Man Must Give Copy Of Court’S Injunction Order To All Current And Future Customers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal court in Tampa has barred Gregory T. Mayer, of Clearwater, Florida, from preparing false or fraudulent income tax returns that understate tax liability. The civil injunction order, entered by Judge Richard A. Lazzara of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, also bars Mayer from selling fraudulent tax schemes, including schemes involving the improper use of trusts and other business entities. The order also applies to two companies Mayer controls: Legal Tax Newsletter, LC and Morton & Oxley, LTD.

The court’s order followed a four-day trial at which Justice Department attorneys showed that Mayer had repeatedly used various phony positions on customers’ tax returns, including the frivolous “Section 861 argument,” which falsely claims that income from sources in the United States is not subject to federal income tax. Evidence at trial also established that Mayer listed deductions for “remuneration expenses” on customers’ business tax returns for wages the businesses paid to their owners, but then improperly omitted those wages on the customers’ individual tax returns.

“The Justice Department is committed to stopping the promotion of tax scams and the preparation and filing of false and fraudulent tax returns” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Tax Division. “People who prepare or file false or fraudulent tax returns are cheating not just the federal treasury, but all law-abiding taxpayers.”

The court also barred Mayer from representing customers before the IRS in connection with past returns and directed him to provide a copy of the injunction to all his current and future customers.

Tax Division trial attorneys Michael Raum and Gregory Van Hoey represented the government in this case, which followed an investigation by agents of the Small Business/Self Employed Division of the Internal Revenue Service.

More information about this case is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv03175.htm. The government’s complaint is part of an intense effort begun in 2001 to stop the promotion of tax scams and the preparation and filing of false and fraudulent returns. The Justice Department has obtained injunctions against more than 100 promoters and tax preparers since 2001. More information about this other tax injunction cases can be found at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm. More information about the Justice Department’s Tax Division is available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/index.html.

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