PHOENIX – Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a State Grand Jury indicted Connie Cozzolino, owner of Connie’s Tax Services, her son Richard Luttrull, and Jennifer Lohss aka Jennifer Drziewicki, on charges of Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, Illegal Control of an Enterprise, 24 counts of Preparing False Tax Returns and Forgery for Allegedly Preparing Arizona Personal Income Tax Returns that contained fraudulent information for tax years 2012-2018. 

ADOT, Department of Revenue partnership takes down large operation

PHOENIX – Working to protect people around the country from fraud involving used cars, state investigators have broken up a major criminal operation based in the East Valley that illegally produced tens of thousands of titles for vehicles being sold in 42 states.

Taxpayers Encouraged to E-file

Individual income tax filers needing additional assistance this tax filing season can take advantage of the following free tax filing services that are available in the state:

Taxpayers can file now and schedule payments up until the deadline.

The Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) reminds transaction privilege tax filers that returns are due.

Avoid the worry and hassle of mailing your return by using AZTaxes.gov, which is available at night and weekends. Our online filing and paying service is free, fast and easy — allowing payments to be scheduled up until the second to last business day.

To be in compliance with state law, you must file a return by its due date, even if there is no tax due for the filing period.

The Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) says taxpayers need to be mindful when selecting their tax preparers this tax season, because they are ultimately responsible for what is filed, regardless of who prepared the return.

 Taxpayer responsibilities:

Taxpayers receiving Form 1099-G, which serves as a confirmation of the previous year’s state tax refund, can now go online to access and print the form.

To be eligible for a Form 1099-G, a taxpayer must have itemized on their federal return and received an Arizona income tax refund.

Filers can download and print their Form 1099-G online by going to www.AZTaxes.gov, clicking on the “View My 1099-G” link and providing the necessary information.

Defendant Accused of Curbstoning

PHOENIX – Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced a State Grand Jury indicted Randolph Ezrre, of Rio Rico, with Fraudulent Schemes and Artifices, and 11 counts of Filing a False Tax Return for allegedly failing to pay transaction privilege tax, also known as sales tax, on used car sales in 2017 and 2018.

The Arizona Department of Revenue (ADOR) treats detecting and stopping fraud with paramount importance and reminds taxpayers that tax filing season is a time to be aware of identity thieves looking for ways to commit tax fraud.

The department points to phishing schemes, card-skimming devices, unsecure Wi-Fi networks, data breaches, computer viruses, unsafe smartphone apps, and hacking email accounts as ways identities are stolen.

Tips to help prevent being the victim of identity theft:

The State of Arizona’s individual income tax filing season for tax year 2019 has opened. The deadline to file is  April 15.