Allied Tax Service Inc. Damaged trial evidence by removing information from subpoenaed documents. Refusing to provide missing information. San Diego CA

Recently I was forced to sue the successor trustee of our family trust for misconduct.  One issue was that many of the historic trust tax returns given to me by the successor trustee bore an unknown Preparer's Tax Identification Number (PTIN).  Our trust's taxes have always been prepared by Larry K Simmering of allied Tax SErvice Inc.  He was our parents tax preparer before their deaths, and he continues to prepare the trust's taxes for the successor trustee.  Mr. Simmering's PTIN ends with xxxxxx324, and it appears on most of the tax returns I was given by the successor trustee. However, some of the returns I received from the successor trustee had the PTIN ending with xxxxxx320.  The numbers are identical but for the last digit.  This indicated that those returns were not prepared by Mr. simmering, and were not the official tax returns for our family trust.

In December of 2017 I served a subpoena on Allied Tax Services' Custodian of Records, Katherine H Feather, to get copies of fifteen (15) historic tax returns from our parents family trust.  I expected to discover that the real tax returns prepared and filed by Mr. Simmering bore his correct PTIN and contained the real data regarding trust amounts.  This would prover that our successor trustee had forged many of the tax returns she gave me, and changed the PTIN on those returns.

The first problem I encountered was Allied Tax Services refusal to follow California Evidence Code Section 1563 which limits the amount she can charge me for producing these documents.  That complaint can be found here.

https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/katherine-h-feather/san-diego-california-92117/katherine-h-feather-allied-tax-service-inc-overcharged-for-services-failed-to-follow-ca-1457780

Damage of Evidence - Removal of Information

When I finally received the requested tax returns from Allied Tax Service Inc., I immediately noticed that the PTIN's had been removed from most of the returns.  In some cases Mr. Simmering's name had been removed as well.  These fields were now just blank spaces.  The removal of these PTIN's destroyed the value of these returns for my purposes, rendering them useless to me.  Suddenly I understood why Ms. Feather insisted that I pay her with a cashier's check.  It was not to assure her that the check would clear, it was to assure her that I couldn't stop payment when I found out what she had done.

However, the PTIN on one return was overlooked.  The 2008 Form 1041 I received from Allied Tax Service still has the unknown PTIN ending with xxxxxx320. This is not Larry Simmering's PTIN, so I don't believe this return was prepared by him.  This is a problem because Mr. Simmering signed a sworn affidavit under penalty of perjury attesting that he prepared all the returns produced in response to my subpoena.

 I recently contacted Allied Tax Service Inc. to ask about the missing and unknown PTIN's on the tax returns produced.  Ms. Feather claims that their tax program (Ultra Tax) sometimes omits the PTIN from the printout.  Researching Ultra Tax I found no error reports of the PTIN being "accidentally" omitted from a printout.  However, there is a feature in Ultra Tax that allows the user to intentionally prevent the PTIN and other sensitive information from being included in the printout.  This does not explain how Mr. Simmering's name was removed from the returns, or why Ms. Feather needed to use the Ultra Tax program just to print copies of archived documents. 

Regarding the unknown PTIN I found on many of the trust's tax returns, Ms. feather claims this PTIN belonged to a colleague of theirs, Paul Potter, who has since retired.  I can't verify his PTIN, but Googling "Paul Potter" "San Diego" "Tax Preparer" I find no results that could be him. There should be something about him somewhere on the internet.  Additionally, six (6) of the tax returns given to me by the successor trustee have the unknown PTIN.  One of those returns has Mr. Simmering's name on it, but none have Mr. Potter's name.

 Allied Tax Service Inc. gave me documents that were incomplete due to their own removal of information. The loss this caused to me at trial is immeasurable.  I have asked Allied Tax Service Inc. to produce the complete unedited documents I subpoenaed and paid for, and to return the approximately $550 I feel I was overcharged.  So far they have not agreed to either.  So maybe this was no accident.

 Allied Tax Service Inc. will be given notice of this complaint.  This post will be updated as new information becomes available.