Customers of Anaheim-based Western Tax Service — whose owner went to federal prison for tax fraud — can now share in a $596,000 settlement, announced the attorneys who filed a class action lawsuit in the case.
The settlement is open to all customers who purchased tax preparation services from Western Tax between March 26, 1999, and March 25, 2003.
Western got big refunds for its customers by falsely claiming high deductions for charitable donations and employee business expenses. When the IRS discovered the fraud, many customers said they were unaware of the deductions.
Western’s owner, Samuel J. DeAngelo, pleaded guilty in 2006 to filing false tax returns and to other charges. He was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison.
Federal authorities seized $596,010 in cash from Western. That money will pay for the settlement.
Lawyers for the Irvine law firm of Lanza & Goolsby, who filed the class action, will get a third of the money. Former Western customers may get as much as $5,000 for each tax return that Western prepared for them. To review the settlement plan and other legal documents, CLICK HERE. To download a claim form, CLICK HERE.
Claim forms must be received by Feb. 28. Western customers can opt out of the settlement, preserving their right to sue Western separately, by notifying the Lanza law firm no later than Jan. 20.
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And with that settlement money they can then pay back their high refund caused by the deductions “they didn’t know about.” Riiiggghhhttt….
you must be one of the “grunts” that worked there…
This was a slick operation and many of us got audited and had to pay back thousands plus penalties and fees.
Anyone with a brain would know what deductions are being reported year after year after year after year. Possibly the client would wonder, Why am I paying so much for the service? Total joke…..the taxpayers were anything but duped.
We paid way more back to the IRS — in our audits the IRS denied EVERYTHING except our children. We gave way more to the IRS than we ever received in refunds.
We never had to use a Tax preparer, until I began working as a self employed Nurse. We had the misfortune of being directed to Western Tax Service. We were audited for 2001 and 2002 even though we had our 2002 taxes done else where when we found out about Western Tax Services illegal practice. The odd thing about it is that the IRS accepted our documented deductions for 2001, but refused to accept our 2002 deductions because we “took too long” resolving our 2001 taxes, they labeled us as “uncooperative”. It cost us a lot of time and money to gather all of the documentation and then to have the IRS deny the documents was very frustrating to say the least. We are now making installment payments on taxes that we do not owe.