Evergreen Reporter

A Riverside County man has pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges for preparing and filing false tax returns for his clients, the Justice Department announced today.

Salvador Gonzalez, of Corona, pleaded guilty on Monday to three counts of aiding and assisting in the preparation of false tax returns.

According to court documents and statements made in court, starting in 2013, Salvador Gonzalez operated Grace’s Lighthouse Resource Center, Inc., a return-preparation business. Since then, Gonzalez has prepared or assisted in the preparation of more than 11,000 tax returns that requested refunds from the IRS totaling more than $38 million.

Gonzalez directed his clients to create phony corporations and title their homes, cars, and other assets in the name of these corporations. He then referred those clients to an associate who would prepare these sham corporations' tax returns. The associate provided clients with a blank spreadsheet and requested they input their business expenses into it. At Gonzalez’s direction, clients included personal expenses such as mortgage payments, car payments, and utility bills. The associate used this information to prepare business tax returns showing a loss.

Gonzalez then prepared the clients’ individual income tax returns incorporating these fraudulent business losses to offset their income. To further reduce taxes owed to the IRS by his clients, Gonzalez fabricated deductions on personal returns such as unreimbursed employee expenses, cash contributions to charity, and medical and dental expenses. As a result of these practices, his clients paid less taxes than they owed.

Gonzalez profited from his return-preparation business by charging a flat fee of $500 per tax return before 2019. In 2019, he began charging clients 1% of their gross income as a fee for his services.

United States District Judge Jesus G. Bernal scheduled an October 7 sentencing hearing in this case where Gonzalez will face a maximum penalty of three years in prison for each count.

IRS Criminal Investigation is investigating the case. Assistant United States Attorney Eli A. Alcaraz of the Riverside Branch Office and Trial Attorney Lauren K. Pope of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.