Taxes have (justifiably) a bad reputation. It doesn’t help matters when a bozo tax preparer is on the loose.
>From Lake Worth, Florida, comes the story of bozo tax preparer Louis Wayne Ratfield. Mr. Ratfield operated LWR Accounting and Tax Service. He had some interesting methods of helping his clients and himself. He promoted common law trusts, and sold them to unwary clients for between $3,000 and $6,000. The trusts were a method of sheltering income, but were anything but trustworthy. In 2001 the IRS obtained an injunction against him prohibiting him from marketing the trusts (the injunction was made permanent in 2004).
But Mr. Ratfield wasn’t deterred. He apparently continued to market the trusts, and also told taxpayers that they could deduct items like ordinary living expenses (sorry, those aren’t deductible). The government estimates that his practices cost the Treasury over $6 million in tax revenues.
Mr. Ratfield was found guilty on 50 counts of tax fraud and criminal contempt. He’ll be spending many years at ClubFed and will likely pay a fine. And for his lucky clients, they’ll probably be seeing “Dear Valued Taxpayer” letters from the IRS, as they’ll soon be under audit.
Tags: BozoTaxPreparer