Tax preparer, previously convicted of fraud, arrested on new felony charges

BATON ROUGE – The owner of a chain of tax preparation businesses faces multiple felony charges for schemes to defraud the state of payroll taxes and inflated income tax refunds.

Investigators with the Louisiana Department of Revenue say Leroi Gorman Jackson (Booking Photo), owner of Taxman Financial Services, LLC, is accused of withholding payroll taxes from the paychecks of 103 employees during the 2016 tax year and failing to remit them to the state. The payroll withholding scheme cost the state an estimated $21,891.

Jackson is accused also of submitting income tax returns on behalf of clients during the 2015 tax year that contained phony business losses, resulting in an estimated $20,000 in fraudulent tax refunds. Jackson pleaded guilty to a similar scheme in 2014, admitting responsibility for fabricated business losses on behalf of taxpayers who had not claimed any losses, and in many cases were not business owners.

Jackson is the 67th person arrested under a joint anti-fraud initiative of the Department of Revenue and the state Attorney General’s Office. He was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on charges of Theft, Principal to Injuring Public Records, Principal to Illegal Transmission of Monetary Funds and Criminal Penalty for Failure to Account for State Tax Monies.