Today, a federal court in Miami, Florida permanently enjoined Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and Roberton Boursiquot from preparing federal income tax returns for others. The Court also entered judgments against Jean-Philippe Boursiquot and Roberton Boursiquot and in favor of the United States in the amounts of $250,000 and $100,000, respectively, on the United States’ claim for the disgorgement of ill-gotten fees they charged customers for the preparation of federal tax returns. The Boursiquots consented to the injunction order and money judgments. In May 2018, the Court also entered an injunction order against B&C Royalty Multi-Services, Inc., which operated in Oakland Park, Florida, and RBS Flamboyant Solutions, Inc., which operated in Hollywood, Florida, prohibiting both corporations from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

The complaint alleges that Jean-Philippe Boursiquot, Roberton Boursiquot, and their corporations, B&C Royalty Multi-Services, Inc. and RBS Flamboyant Solutions, Inc., continually claimed education credits for taxpayers who did not incur qualifying expenses. The complaint also alleges that they fabricated business income or expenses in order to qualify for the earned income credit.

It is further alleged that the Boursiquots and their corporations charged their customers exorbitant fees without the customers’ knowledge and quoted refunds to customers that were substantially smaller than the refunds requested on the returns filed with the IRS. They would then allegedly pocket the excess as preparation fees, often without the customers’ knowledge according to the complaint.

The IRS has a list of steps on its website that you can take and ten tips for choosing a tax preparer. Each year, the IRS releases the top 12 scams, known as the Dirty Dozen. Return preparer fraud is one of the IRS’s Dirty Dozen Tax Scams for 2018, and taxpayers seeking a return preparer should remain vigilant. The IRS has some information on its website for choosing a return preparer and has launched a free directory of federal tax preparers.

In the past decade, the 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 at tax.mail@usdoj.gov with details.