Effective way to stop a tax preparer's fraudulent business

Tax preparer put that I made more than I did and stole my early advance loan. I had no knowledge until days later when I actually viewed it and start matching numbers up. Why did it take me days? Because I knew something wasn’t right because I had to keep asking him for a copy of my refund and I was sparing myself the frustration for my mental health. Once I did, I saw he put that I made $1000 more and he charged me more than he told me on top of not giving me a copy of the breakdown. So I went today and got the copy of the breakdown just to realize he also stole $1100 from my early loan which I only received $500. He literally stole my WHOLE RETURN, please give me some advice, any tips would help.

If this is for a return you just did, your refund hasn’t been issued yet. The IRS will not start accepting and processing returns until Jan 27th, putting the earliest refunds into the second week of February.

Generally speaking, never use the advance loan products.

Report the preparer to the IRS:

If you are in a state with a state income tax, report them to your state Department of Revenue or Taxation.

Look through your paperwork. Find out what bank the preparer uses to offer the loan products. Report them to that bank. They will pull the contract from the shady preparers. Some of them:

Refund Advantage - Pathward Bank
EPS Financial - Pathward Bank
SBTPG/Santa Barbara Tax - Civista Bank
River City Bank

Your loan paperwork should identify who the partner bank is.

@Kai
Yes, a bit fishy post, unless they were referring to the 2023 tax return.

Report them for fraud. Make a complaint about a tax return preparer | Internal Revenue Service

They make the good preparers look bad and need to be shut down.

This is what happens when you prioritize the largest refund vs the most accurate. People know they are going to someone shady but don’t care since the money is coming from the IRS. Except now the IRS is verifying ID and freezing refunds. Guess what, the loans from these banks still want to get paid even if the IRS doesn’t pay out. So you owe the IRS and the bank. A real FAFO situation.

@Zaire
I ordered extra popcorn to start the year. It’s going to be fun here.

Kai said:
@Zaire
I ordered extra popcorn to start the year. It’s going to be fun here.

I was just sent the new enforcement procedures for the new ERC rules. It’s going to be bad. The IRS means business.

@Zaire
I didn’t get that email …

Adi said:
@Zaire
I didn’t get that email …

Friend sent it to me. I didn’t get to read it yet. It sounds like there is a lot about the hours worked and the 10k limit.

Kai said:
@Zaire
I ordered extra popcorn to start the year. It’s going to be fun here.

You need popcorn for r/tax and booze for r/turbotax… every year it gets worse and worse.

Sorry, you’re not going to get much sympathy from most of us- maybe a bit of empathy.
Question being, why didn’t you review the return before you signed it? You are signing that the return is true and accurate. Why didn’t you get all this information beforehand?

@Marley
A fraudulent preparer can easily get around that.

Unless you have a COMPLEX situation ‘free services’ would be best. AARP-VITA etc.

Regulations, bonding and taxpayers need to review what they are signing.

FAFO, you get what you pay for. Stop living on payday loans and money you don’t have.

Hire someone with a CPA or EA, no one else. If your preparers don’t have either a CPA or EA they have nothing to lose and therefore are riskier. They are most likely not that smart in school either so you don’t want idiots doing your taxes.

@Ash
That’s why you could impose power of attorney.

Was this by chance through a big box store?

You can contact your state attorney general’s office to make a consumer complaint.