Florida Tax Return Preparer Agrees to Shut Down Tax Prep Business and to Pay $134,400

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued a permanent injunction today against Fort Lauderdale, Florida, tax return preparer Dexter Bataille, individually and doing business as Capital Financial Group Holdings LLC. The court ordered the closure of Bataille’s business, Capital Financial Holdings LLC, and barred him from preparing or assisting in preparing federal income tax returns or transferring his customer lists. The court also ordered Bataille to pay $134,400 in ill-gotten gains he received from his return preparation business. Bataille agreed to both the injunction and the order to pay $134,400.

The complaint alleged that Bataille prepared customers’ returns that fraudulently claimed various false or inflated deductions and credits, including fabricated, false and exaggerated profits and expenses to generate inflated business losses; misreported filing statuses and dependent claims; and false reports of household help income.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General David A. Hubbert of the Justice Department’s Tax Division made the announcement.

Taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant against unscrupulous tax preparers. The IRS has information on its website for choosing a tax return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers. The IRS warns taxpayers to avoid "ghost preparers" and lists other improper acts that tax preparers engage in to take advantage of their unsuspecting customers.

In the past decade, the Justice Department’s Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers. Information about these cases is available on the Justice Department’s website. An alphabetical listing of persons enjoined from preparing returns and promoting tax schemes can be found on this page. If you believe that one of the enjoined persons or businesses may be violating an injunction, please contact the Tax Division with details.