Robert L. Cardoza, Tax Return Preparation Fraud, California 2022

A federal court in Los Angeles has dealt a major blow to tax scammer Robert L. Cardoza, permanently barring him from preparing federal tax returns for others.

The permanent injunction order, to which Cardoza consented, was entered by U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew for the Central District of California.

According to a complaint, Cardoza prepared returns that fraudulently claimed tax deductions for his customers, including bogus deductions for medical and dental expenses, charitable contributions, unreimbursed employee business expenses, and car and truck expenses.

Cardoza also falsely represented to his customers that he was a certified public accountant and that he had obtained a master’s degree in business administration and a doctoral degree.

Since 2008, Cardoza prepared over 5,000 federal tax returns, and his fraudulent return preparation resulted in the loss of millions of dollars to the U.S. Treasury.

Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’ Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2014, and the IRS has tips on their website for choosing a tax preparer.

In the past decade, the Tax Division has obtained injunctions against hundreds of unscrupulous tax preparers, and information about these cases is available on the Justice Department website.

Cardoza’s ban from preparing tax returns is a significant victory for the U.S. Treasury and a warning to other would-be tax scammers.

Cardoza’s case is United States v. Robert L. Cardoza, with a Final Judgment of Permanent Injunction Against Robert L. Cardoza available on the Justice Department website.

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