Feds Bar Cartersville Man from Preparing Tax Returns for Others

A federal court has permanently barred a Cartersville tax preparer from completing tax returns for others, the U.S. Justice Department announced Monday.

Larry J. Heath, who operated Heath’s Income Tax, Heath & Hames Income Tax and Heath’s Income Tax II, agreed to the civil injunction order signed by U.S. District Court Judge Harold L. Murphy without admitting to the allegations against him.

Federal , acts that could cost the U.S. Treasury more than $100 million.

Larry Heath and his Cartersville-area businesses allegedly repeatedly prepared federal tax returns that unlawfully understated customers’ federal tax liabilities, according to the press release. The civil injunction suit alleges he concocted bogus losses, expenses, education credits, business expenses and charitable contributions, which he falsely reported on his customers’ federal-income-tax returns.

The Internal Revenue Service had previously suspended Heath’s IRS-issued electronic filing identification number because of the large number of erroneous returns he prepared, according to the complaint.

Heath then supposedly “sold” his business to two different women and used their EFINs to continue to file tax returns, the complaint alleged. The injunction applies to the businesses that were purportedly sold, Heath & Hames Income Tax and Heath’s Income Tax II.

The government’s complaint was brought against both Heath brothers, but the case against Andrew R. Heath remains pending. He operated Excellent Tax Service in Acworth.

About 94.5 percent of tax returns prepared by the Heath brothers and their businesses required IRS adjustments, according to the complaint.

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