FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE TAX

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, (202) 514-2007

2005 TDD (202) 514-1888
WWW.USDOJ.GOV

FEDERAL JUDGE IN VIRGINIA

BARS NORFOLK MAN FROM
PREPARING FEDERAL TAX
RETURNS FOR OTHERS
Hampton Roads-area Return Preparer Used the
Bogus “Claim of Right” Doctrine
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department announced today that a federal
court has barred Anthony McBryde, of Norfolk, Virginia, from preparing federal
income tax returns for others. The preliminary injunction order, entered by Judge
Walter D. Kelley, Jr., of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of
Virginia, also requires McBryde to give the government a list identifying his
customers’ mailing and e-mail addresses and taxpayer identification and telephone
numbers, to provide the government copies of all the returns he has prepared for
customers since January 2000, and to mail copies of the order to his customers.
According to court filings, McBryde is a City of Norfolk code inspector who
prepared for customers federal income tax returns containing improper deductions
that fraudulently eliminated or reduced customers’ reported taxable income. He
allegedly has prepared at least 187 returns containing deductions based on the so-
called “claim of right” doctrine, which courts have rejected as frivolous. He also
advised his clients to claim deductions for nondeductible personal expenses, such as
residential gas and electricity bills. The government’s complaint alleges that
McBryde prepared returns in the Hampton Roads area, including Norfolk, Suffolk,
Chesapeake, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach, charging customers a flat rate of
approximately $60 to $130 per return.

“The Justice Department is working energetically with the IRS to halt fraudulent tax
return preparation,” said Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General for the
Justice Department’s Tax Division. “Fraudulent preparers not only cheat the IRS,
but also cheat their customers by exposing them to possible civil and criminal
penalties.”
More information about this case is available at . This suit is part of an ongoing
Justice Department and IRS crackdown on preparers of false and fraudulent tax
returns. More information about these cases is available at
http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/taxpress2005.htm. The “claim of right” doctrine is number
five on the IRS’s 2005 list of the “Dirty Dozen” tax scams, the complete list of
which is available at . More information about the Tax Division is available at .

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