By Stacie Clifford Kitts, CPA

Apparently, Gerard Mirabella of Spring Hill, Florida prepared returns for his clients claiming false deductions for medical expenses, charitable contributions, non-existent businesses and other items according to a recent Department of Justice news release.

But that’s not all.

Mr. Mirabella was much more creative than just making up fake deductions for his clients. Yes sir-ee. It appears that he was able to convince his clients to go along with his um, works of fiction, by claiming that he was a former IRS employee whose returns were “cleared” by the IRS.

That’s right, as a former employee he apparently claimed to have a special “in” with our friends the Internal Revenue Service. This imaginary special treatment alludes to a unique prescreening of his work by the IRS giving his clients a license to claim certain fraudulent deductions.

A complaint requesting a permanent injunction against Mr. Mirabella also states that he told at least one client that he [Mr. Mirabella] had worked extra hard on the client’s return and that in addition to his normal $3,000 fee, he would like to receive a “tip” for his services.

Wow-wee, that sure is original. I will give him that.

I certainly wasn’t shocked to find out that a Florida Judge has permanently barred Mr. Mirabella from preparing any more tax returns. Thank goodness.