Over the last few years, the Justice Department has obtained court orders barring hundreds of people from preparing federal income tax returns for others, usually because they assist illegal tax evasion or promote the fantasy that income taxes are optional.

It added another one today, winning a federal court order permanently barring Sharon Hubbard of Kansas City, Missouri, from preparing federal income tax returns for others.

According to the government complaint, Hubbard was responsible for dozens of federal income tax returns that contained fictitious and inflated deductions for charitable contributions, job-related expenses, and medical and business expenses.

The complaint stated that the Internal Revenue Service audited 58 of them and found improper deductions on every one. The I.R.S. reckons that all those phony deductions have cost other taxpayers more than $4 million.

No wonder the feds sought a court order. Receiving suspiciously large refunds, suffering I.R.S. audits, and paying penalties and interest on their underpaid taxes apparently wasn't enough to discourage all of her clients.

So a few hearty tax-shirkers might not be put off from using her merely because Hubbard is currently serving two years at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Pekin, Illinois.

by Mark Stein