Guy Telfort, Tax Evasion, Florida 2023

A Florida tax preparer is facing the consequences of his actions after pleading guilty to tax evasion in federal court.

Guy Telfort, a resident of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, entered a guilty plea to criminal contempt for preparing and filing tax returns with the IRS in violation of a federal court order.

According to court documents, Telfort owned and operated Tax Houses and Accounting Services, a Lauderdale Lakes tax preparation business, from approximately January 2015 through April 2019.

During this time, Telfort and his employees prepared and filed tax returns for clients, reporting false items such as fictitious business income and losses and mileage deductions to generate inflated IRS refunds.

On April 24, 2019, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida entered an injunction against Telfort, permanently barring him from preparing federal tax returns for others.

Despite this court-ordered injunction, Telfort continued to prepare and file tax returns out of an Oakland Park pawn shop in 2020 and 2021, charging clients as much as $1,000 for each return filed with the IRS.

Telfort used Preparer Tax Identification Numbers belonging to other tax preparers to disguise his role in preparing these returns, which reported false medical and dental expenses and charitable contributions, as well as fictitious businesses.

Over the two-year period, Telfort helped prepare nearly 1,200 tax returns for clients in willful violation of the permanent injunction.

Telfort is scheduled to be sentenced on August 16 and potentially faces a period of incarceration, term of supervised release, and monetary fine.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida made the announcement, with Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General Stuart M. Goldberg and U.S. Attorney Juan Antonio Gonzalez commending the efforts of the trial attorneys who prosecuted the case.

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