A Miami, Fla.-based tax preparer, who had been barred from the tax business, must pay $403,967.70 to a federal court for violating that order. The preparer, Milagros Espinal, was barred from preparing or filing federal tax returns for others.
She was hit with the contempt citation after an August 18 hearing founded that the United States has proved she continue to prepare returns in violation of the original order.
Espinal was barred on Feb. 16, 2011 after the U.S. alleged she had prepared returns utilizing fraudulent medical expenses, charitable contributions and unreimbursed employee business expenses. A review by the Internal Revenue Service found errors in 97 percent of the returns it examined that were prepared by Espinal.
A federal court based a fine based on a government demonstration that $393,280 reasonably approximated the amount of money she made on the returns. The remaining $8,689.75 covers costs the government incurred in investigating and litigating the case.
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