Franchot Suspends Six Tax Preparation Locations in the County for Suspicious Filings (VIDEO)

In an effort to stop tax fraud and identity theft, Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot announced he has suspended processing electronic and paper returns from 19 new private tax preparation locations, including six in Montgomery County.

Franchot said he stopped the processing of returns because of a high volume of questionable returns received.

Suspicious activity detected on the tax returns included: business income reported when taxpayers did not own a business; refund amounts requested were higher than previous year’s tax return; undocumented business expenses; dependents claimed when taxpayer did not provide required 50 percent of support or care; and inflated wages and withholding information.

The county businesses notified of the action are:

1. Integrated Multi Services in Silver Spring
2. Japrhispanic LLC in Takoma Park
3. Money Back Tax LLC in Silver Spring
4. Max Tax Service in Silver Spring
5. Marylis LLC in Gaithersburg
6. Tax4All LLC in Takoma Park

In this MyMCMedia Extra video, Franchot urges residents to use caution when preparing and filing taxes:

JUST ANNOUNCED: My office will suspend processing electronic and paper returns from 19 highly suspicious tax preparers (listed below). pic.twitter.com/557XKGYpHP

— Peter Franchot (@peterfranchot) March 2, 2017

To date, we have suspended processing returns from 78 tax preparation services. The full list can be found here: https://t.co/EDDqXAlBoY

— Peter Franchot (@peterfranchot) March 2, 2017

About Mitti Hicks

Mitti Hicks is a multimedia journalist and community engagement specialist with Montgomery Community Media. She is passionate about telling stories that impact our community and may be reached at MHicks@mymcmedia.org and on Twitter @mittimegan.

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