Pennsylvanian Barred from Preparing Fed Returns
A federal court in Philadelphia has permanently barred Dorothea Alexander from preparing federal tax returns for others. Alexander, a resident of Leola, Pa., agreed to a civil injunction order without admitting the allegations which say she claimed bogus dependent exemptions, charitable donation and other deductions, and tax credits on customers' tax returns. The case was heard in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
Alexander was a tax supervisor at Pawn Plus in Lancaster, Pa. She was required to send a copy of the order to all customers for whom she, or anyone under her direction, prepared a federal tax return since Jan. 1, 2005, and to give the government a list of those customers. In its original complaint, the government said Alexander told a customer he "could use some dependents" and then listed the names and Social Security numbers of people he did not know. She then allegedly charged a fee equal to half of the resulting inflated refund for listing them. The tax loss for her acts from the 2004 through 2007 tax returns may have been as much as $10.8 million.
