A New York tax preparer has been charged with tax return fraud that allegedly cost the Internal Revenue Service more than $100 million over a decade. Rafael Alvarez is accused of filing tens of thousands of fraudulent returns.
His firm, ATAX New York, is said to have billed. $15 million over the last three years. Alvarez, based in Cortlandt Manor, N.Y. acquired the nickname “The Magician” for his ability to make clients’ tax debts disappear.
Alvarez was charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and making false statements, four counts of aiding and assisting preparation of false and fraudulent U.S. individual income tax returns and attempting to interfere with the administration of the internal revenue laws and aggravated identity theft.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind