John Anthony Castro (born 1983) is an Americantax advisor fromTexas. He is known as the most prolific^[2][3] advocate for disqualifyingDonald Trump from the 2024 U.S. presidential election under theFourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and for his involvement inDixon v Commissioner and its related cases. In 2024, Castro was convicted of 33 counts oftax fraud as a result of filing fraudulent returns through his tax preparation service, Castro & Co.

Castro earned a bachelor's degree from Texas A&M International University inLaredo, Texas,^[4] before receiving aJ.D. from theUniversity of New Mexico andLLM fromGeorgetown University.^[5] He later graduated from theOwner/President Management Program at Harvard Business School.^[6]

He was banned from participating inGeorgetown University Law Center's job fair as a student and then later on as an employer over what the university claimed were "deliberate misrepresentations on his resume".^[7][8][1] Castro disputed the allegations and sued Georgetown over them, though the lawsuit was dismissed on a jurisdictional issue.^[8]

Though he has described himself, and has been described, as an attorney,^{[9][10][11][12]} Castro has never been licensed to practice law.^{[13][9][14][15][16][17]}

In 2013, shortly after completing his LLM, Castro briefly worked for Gudorf Law Group ofDayton, Ohio, before suing the firm for allegedly defaming him.^[5][18][19] The lawsuit was dismissed.^[19]

In about 2016, Castro established his tax preparation service, Castro & Co., inOrlando, Florida, later relocating it to Texas.^[20][21] He did contingency fee refund work,^[22] a practice in which a tax preparer retains, as payment, a portion of the tax refund he is able to secure on behalf of a client.^[23]

Castro successfully marketed his home-based tax consultancy to clients around the world and, in one two-year period, filed nearly 2,000 tax returns on behalf of taxpayers in multiple countries.^[24][19]

At Castro & Co., Castro issued "legal opinions" to United Statesexpatriates living inAustralia — some of whom were employees of investment firmDixon Advisory — on ways they could exclude certain earnings from being reported on their U.S. tax returns.^[12] The company's CEO Alan C. Dixon, an Australian citizen who had taken up residence in the United States to invest in theNew Jersey real estate market,^[25][26] replaced his own tax accountancy,PwC, with Castro & Co.^[12][26]

Castro amended the tax returns PwC filed for Dixon to claimforeign tax credit on Dixon'sfranking credits, allowing Dixon to transform his tax liability into a $3,268,930 refund due to him from the U.S. Government.^[12] Upon receiving the revised returns Castro prepared, the IRS initiated an audit of Dixon, assessed penalties against him, and seized his refund.^[12][25] Dixon's lawsuit against theU.S. Government to recover his refund was the subject of theUnited States Tax Court caseAlan Dixon v Commissioner of Internal Revenue, described byTax Notes Federal as "a cautionary tale of cross-border tax compliance complexities".^[27][28] According toJustia's summary of the case:^[29]

During the litigation, it became clear that Dixon had not personally signed his name on the 2017 amended returns—the tax preparer [Castro] had signed Dixon’s name—and no authorizing power-of-attorney documentation accompanied the amended returns.

Because federal law prevents a taxpayer from suing for a refund without having previously submitted a “duly filed” claim to the IRS, and the 2017 amended returns were not “duly filed” due to the lack of a proper signature, Dixon's case against the U.S. Government was dismissed leaving him, according to theAustralian Financial Review, with "nought, aside from penalties and legal fees".^[29][28][26] The Dixon case was one of a "long-line"^[22] of cases adjudicated that involved Castro signing his name in place or on behalf of his Australia-resident clients.^[30] Carlton Smith, writing inTax Notes Federal, noted that "in all Castro cases" courts held that "the signature requirement mandating that the taxpayer sign is statutory and not subject to waiver".^[31]

In January 2024, theUnited States Department of Justice unsealed a 33-countgrand jury indictment against Castro, culminating a years-long investigation into Castro & Co. related to the filing of fraudulent tax returns.^{[32][33][34][2][35][36]} Castro was arrested byspecial agents of IRS Criminal Investigations on January 9, 2024.^{[2][34][35][36]}

United States AttorneyLeigha Simonton said that Castro's crimes were "stunning" for their "brazenness" and involved him promising higher tax refunds to clients than they could legitimately receive, padding their tax returns with bogus deductions, and then keeping half of the amount refunded to the client by the government for himself.^[21][33] According to prosecutors, "for one client, who made approximately $103,000 in income, Mr. Castro claimed over $90,000 in deductions related to unreimbursed employee expenses" while, with another client he "deducted over $26,000 in expenses that he claimed related to a nascent cupcake business that had generated only $250 in revenue".^[24] Prosecutors went on to allege that Castro "often acted in a highly vindictive manner when questioned or challenged by clients or others, often berating individuals in emails, threatening legal actions, or by filing amended tax returns, without clients’ permission or knowledge, that removed all deductions, causing the taxpayer-victim to then owe the IRS tens of thousands of dollars".^[24] It is alleged that Castro's enterprise resulted in more than $15.5 million worth of tax losses to the United States.^[19]

Castro denied any wrongdoing and explained that he had already taken responsibility for what he said were past instances in which he'd misinterpreted the tax code and had thus far paid back $700,000 to the United States.^[2][33][35] At trial, Castro's attorneys argued that his application of the tax code involved "aggressive" and "unconventional" legal positions but did not rise to the level of "willful violations of the law".^[19]

In May 2024, Castro was convicted of all 33 charges and was remanded into custody pending sentencing.^[13][24] The following October, he was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.^[37]

In 2016, Castro was awarded a teaching appointment atEuclid University, becoming the supervising faculty member for the university's Master of Laws program in taxation.^[38]

Between 2004 and 2021, Castro unsuccessfully stood for election toWebb CountyCourt of Commissioners,U.S. Senate, andU.S. House of Representatives.^[39][40][41]

In 2022, Castro launched an unsuccessful run for President of the United States as a Republican in the2024 United States presidential election.^[42] According to Castro, he ran to attempt to achieve legal standing to disqualify Donald Trump from seeking reelection under the 14th Amendment.^[26] He began filingpro se lawsuits to block Trump in early 2023.^[43][9][44]

Castro ultimately filed dozens of unsuccessful federal lawsuits in courts across the country seeking to have Trump disqualified and became, according to theNew York Times andNPR, the "most prolific" advocate for disqualification.^[3][2][45] By the end of the year, more than a dozen of his cases had either been dismissed or non-suited, with additional dismissals that followed in 2024.^{[46][47][48][49][50][51][52]} Appellate panels in theUnited States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and theUnited States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit both rejected his appeals, while theU.S. Supreme Court refused to consider his petition for awrit of certiorari.^[53][54][55]

In 2022, according to theNew Hampshire Union Leader, Castro claimed that theCentral Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to plantlistening devices in his automobile on orders of Donald Trump.^[10]The following year, Castro sued Trump for $180 million, alleging that the former president was engaged in a conspiracy with the IRS and CIA to “monitor, surveil, and harass” him.^[26][56] He added several others to the lawsuit, including IRS criminal investigators, attorneys, a senior CIA official, staff of thePine Gap satellite surveillance base, and aJohn Doe defendant, all of whom he alleged conspired with Donald Trump to harass him.^[56] Castro's lawsuit was dismissed.^[57]

In 2008, Castro denounced the "corruption, lies, theft and war" of theGeorge W. Bush administration in an opinion piece for theHouston Chronicle.^[58] In 2021, according toPolitico, Castro said he wanted to "return to the compassionate conservatism of the Bush era".^[59]

Castro is a resident ofMansfield, Texas.^[60] He has served on the board of directors of the Harvard Business School Club ofWashington, D.C.^[6]

• Castro, John (2005).My Plan for Laredo.Cafe Press.
• Castro, John & Hunt, Tiffany (2018).International Taxation In Plain English.CreateSpace.

• Castro, John (2018). "U.S. Tax Treatment of Australian Superannuation".Nevada Law Journal.

• US patent 11397995, John Anthony Castro, "Tax planning using video-based graphical user interface and artificial intelligence", issued July 2, 2022 
• US patent 11847707, John Anthony Castro, "Tax planning using video-based graphical user interface and artificial intelligence", issued November 29, 2023 

• Campaign website
• Castro & Co. website

• 1986 births
• Texas A&M International University alumni
• People from Laredo, Texas
• Living people
• University of New Mexico School of Law alumni
• Georgetown University Law Center alumni
• People from Mansfield, Texas
• Tax advisors
• Candidates in the 2024 United States presidential election
• 21st-century American criminals
• American male criminals
• Criminals from Texas

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