Federal Court Shuts Down Illinois Tax Return Preparer

A federal court has permanently barred Jackelin Brooks, a Bolingbrook, Illiniois tax return preparer, from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction order was entered by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. 

According to the government’s complaint, Brooks, a Bolingbrook resident, prepared returns that reported false income and expenses from Schedule C businesses and improperly claimed the American Opportunity Tax Credit and the Residential Energy Credit, resulting in refunds to which her customers were not entitled. The complaint alleges that the falsified tax returns cost the United States tens of thousands of dollars in tax revenue. The injunction was entered against Brooks by default because she failed to defend against the government’s allegations.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s “Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2019. In the past 10 years, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of return preparers and tax-fraud promoters. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.