Justice Department Seeks to Shut Down Southern California Tax Return Preparer

Victorville, Calif., Man and His Business, Refunds R Us, Allegedly Claimed More Than $20 Million in Fraudulent Tax Refunds

WASHINGTON – The United States has asked a federal court to bar Dennis Giroud of Victorville, Calif., from preparing federal tax returns for others, the Justice Department announced today. The civil injunction suit alleges that Giroud and his business, Refunds R Us, prepare fraudulent tax returns for their customers that claim large tax refunds based on a frivolous theory called “redemption” or “commercial redemption,” which has been rejected by numerous courts.

According to the government complaint, Giroud prepares tax returns that claim fraudulent refunds based on fabricated income tax withholding reported on false forms submitted with the returns.   The complaint alleges that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) catches most of the frivolous refund requests before refunds are issued, but that Giroud’s scheme has caused the IRS to issue at least $1.2 million in erroneous refunds to his customers.   Giroud has allegedly sought more than $19 million in fraudulent refunds for more than 100 customers using returns based on the frivolous “redemption” theory and has also allegedly requested more than $1.3 million in bogus refunds for himself.

Filing false tax forms, including false withholding claims, is one of the IRS’s“Dirty Dozen” tax scams for 2011.   In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of tax fraud promoters and unscrupulous tax return preparers.   Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.