NLV tax return preparer agrees to injunction
A federal judge has barred a North Las Vegas woman and her business from preparing federal tax returns that involve foreign earned income, the Justice Department announced today.
Sheila Bunting consented to the civil injunction order, which was entered by U.S. District Judge James Mahan. The injunction also bars Bunting’s business, 5 Star Tax LLC, from continuing to prepare tax returns that involve foreign earned income and from promoting the exclusion of foreign earned income to others.
The U.S. government filed a lawsuit against Bunting on Wednesday. According to the complaint, Bunting inappropriately attempted to exclude foreign earned income from the calculation of her customers’ federal tax liabilities, which understated her customers’ correct tax liabilities or inflated improper refunds.
Typically, U.S. citizens may exempt some foreign earned income from the calculation of gross income if they are present in a foreign country for at least 330 full days out of 12 consecutive months, according to the Justice Department.
This period can be waived when the secretary of the treasury determines, after consultation with the secretary of state, that individuals were required to leave a foreign country because of war, civil unrest or other conditions that preclude the normal conduct of business.
In implementing this waiver provision, each year the secretary of the trea- sury publishes a list of countries that have been determined eligible for waiver requests. According to the lawsuit, Bunting disregarded the published list of waiver-eligible countries in filing the exclusion of foreign earned income on behalf of her customers.
The injunction requires Bunting to provide a list of all customers for whom she has prepared federal tax returns or claims for refund since Jan. 1, 2012, that reference foreign earned income. The list must identify the customers by name, Social Security number, address, email address, telephone number and tax periods. Contact reporter Carri Geer Thevenot at cgeer@ reviewjoural.com or 702-384-8710. Find her on Twitter: @CarriGeer
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL