John Anthony Castro

After leaving Gudorf Law Group, Castro established his Dallas-area tax preparation service, Castro & Co.[13] At Castro & Co., Castro did contingency fee refund work,[14] 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.[15]

In 2019, Castro's Enrolled Agent status was suspended by the Internal Revenue Service for six months.[16][17]

At Castro & Co., Castro issued "legal opinions" to United States expatriates living in Australia — some of whom were employees of investment firm Dixon Advisory — on ways they could exclude certain earnings from being reported on their U.S. tax returns.[9] The company's CEO Alan C. Dixon, an Australian citizen who had taken up residence in the United States to invest in the New Jersey real estate market,[18][19] replaced his own tax accountancy, PwC, with John Anthony Castro.[9][19]

Castro amended the tax returns PwC filed for Dixon to claim foreign tax credit on Dixon's franking credits, allowing Dixon to transform his tax liability into a $3,268,930 refund due to him from the U.S. Government.[9] Upon receiving the revised returns Castro prepared, the IRS initiated an audit of Dixon, assessed penalties against him, and seized his refund.[9][18]

Dixon's lawsuit against the U.S. Government to recover his refund was the subject of the United States Tax Court case Alan Dixon v Commissioner of Internal Revenue, described by Tax Notes Federal as "a cautionary tale of cross-border tax compliance complexities" and by The Contemporary Tax Journal as an "interesting case for taxpayers and tax professionals ... [that] covers situations that deal with how important it is to comply with the regulations and follow the filing instructions."[20][9][21] According to Justia's summary of the case:[22]

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 the Australian Financial Review, with "nought, aside from penalties and legal fees."[22][21][19]

The Dixon case was one of a number of cases in which Castro signed his name in place or on behalf of his Australia-resident clients.[23] By 2021, according to Tax Notes Federal, there had been "a long line of [court] cases caused by ... John Anthony Castro" that resulted in "a whole group of taxpayers ... keeping lawyers interested in procedural issues occupied."[14]

In another case, according to Carlton Smith writing in Tax Notes Federal, Castro signed a client's returns since it was a "burden to send refund claims to his overseas clients to have the clients sign and return the claims" and, because "Castro’s signature is messy ... it was not until the suits had commenced that the DOJ discovered that the purported taxpayer signatures on the Forms 1040X were those of Mr. Castro and not the taxpayers."[23] In yet another case, according to Joshua Rosenberg of Law360, the clients "failed to sign their amended returns directly and didn't tender power of attorney to a legal representative" resulting in the denial of refund claims by the IRS, a decision subsequently upheld by a federal court.[24] Smith noted that "in all Castro cases" courts held that "the signature requirement mandating that the taxpayer sign is statutory and not subject to waiver" resulting in dismissals of the lawsuits Castro's clients had brought against the government seeking to reclaim their forfeited refunds.[25]

Castro entered politics seeking the Democratic Party nomination for Webb County Court of Commissioners in 2004, receiving less than 500 votes and coming in last.[26]

Castro ran as a Republican in the 2020 United States Senate election in Texas, earning less than five percent of the vote in the Republican primary.[27]

In 2021, Castro stood for U.S. House of Representatives in a special election to succeed Ron Wright, again running as a Republican.[28] According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, "Castro was mostly a phantom candidate. He campaigned on Zoom, but primarily plastered the district with self-funded billboards and signs".[28] Castro failed to advance out of the primary.[28]

In 2022, Castro launched a run for President of the United States as a Republican in the 2024 United States presidential election.[29][30][31][32] According to Castro, he decided to run for president instead of "building a business empire" and "becoming a billionaire."[19]

In March 2023, Castro filed with the Federal Election Commission that he had loaned $20 million to his own campaign.[7][11] Media outlets reported that, at around the same time, he was being sued by American Express over $53,000 in credit card debt and had recently requested a pro bono attorney in a different lawsuit filed against him by one of his former clients.[7][11]

Soon after he registered to run, Castro began to file lawsuits to try to disqualify Donald Trump from the 2024 presidential election, promoting his legal efforts with posts to social media like "they finally realized I’m not fu**ing around. Too late, beta boys."[33] In February 2023 he filed a pro se lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia seeking an injunction to bar Donald Trump from also running for president of the United States in 2024.[34][35] The case was dismissed.[11] He filed another pro se lawsuit in federal court in Florida also seeking to bar Trump from running, a case that was also dismissed.[36] He then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, bypassing the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, to reverse the district court's judgment.[36] The Supreme Court declined to hear the matter.[37]

Castro would file 27[38] pro se lawsuits in federal district courts across the country seeking to have Trump disqualified.[12][10] As of late 2023, cases in Maine, Oklahoma, Idaho, Pennsylvania, and Utah — in addition to those in Florida and Washington, D.C. — had been dismissed.[39]

Castro has criticized Donald Trump, calling him a "false prophet".[28][40]

In 2022, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader, Castro claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had attempted to plant bugs in his automobile on orders of Donald Trump.[7]

In June 2023, Castro sued Donald Trump for $180 million, alleging that the former president was engaged in a conspiracy with the IRS to “monitor, surveil, and harass” him.[19] He subsequently emailed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to demand the U.S. Secret Service protect him.[41]

In 2008, during the presidency of George Bush, Castro warned that "the Bush Administration is now planning on executing the final operation of their dictatorial reign over this country".[42] In an op-ed in the Laredo Morning Times after the 2008 United States presidential election, he declared "Tuesday night’s results sent a clear and chilling message to the Republican Party: This is Your Punishment!" and went on to denounce "their party" for bringing about a "depression-like economy [and] debt to foreign nations" during the 2001 to 2008 period.[43]