Irving Brown Sr., Tax Return Fraud, Illinois 2024

Irving Brown Sr.
Accused of Tax Return Fraud,
Causing $1M in Losses to US Treasury

Chicago, IL - A retired Chicago firefighter has been accused of perpetrating a massive tax return scam, allegedly causing over $1 million in losses to the US Treasury, according to a complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The complaint, filed by the United States, alleges that Irving Brown Sr., a retired Chicago Fire Department captain, has been preparing federal income tax returns for firefighters and other Chicago-area taxpayers that understate their correct tax liabilities in order to minimize the taxes they owe and maximize tax refunds.

According to the complaint, Brown has been operating Irving Brown Sr. Tax Services out of his Chicago home, obtaining inflated tax refunds for his customers through the use of fraudulent earned income tax credits, false charitable deductions, and fake business expenses on a Schedule C (Profit or Loss From Business).

Brown allegedly uses these tactics to create false tax deductions for his customers, including claiming head of household filing status for those who are ineligible and creating false Schedule E (Supplemental Income and Loss) expenses from fictitious rental real estate, according to the complaint.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has completed examinations of 94 of the returns Brown prepared, and the total tax deficiency for those returns alone exceeds $740,000, according to the complaint. The IRS estimates that Brown has prepared over 2,000 tax returns since 2011, potentially causing losses of over $1 million to the US Treasury.

The lawsuit marks the latest in a series of efforts by the government to crack down on return preparer fraud, which is one of the IRS' Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2015. The IRS has provided tips on its website for choosing a tax preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/justice-department-asks-federal-court-shut-down-fraudulent-tax-return-business-operated