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The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.com
Published on Nov 23, 2012
Remisier jailed for tax evasion
She dodged $64,309 in income tax by making false entries in her returns
By elena chong
A REMISIER who under-reported her income to the taxman was jailed for a week and ordered to pay a penalty of $192,927 yesterday.
Teo Joo Hiang, 52, admitted to two charges of making false entries in her income tax returns for the years of assessment 2009 and 2010.
This is the first case where a remisier has been charged under the Income Tax Act for tax evasion.
She was unable to pay the penalty, which is three times the amount of tax evaded, and will have to serve an additional five months and two weeks in jail.
Investigations showed that she had declared a brokerage income of $417,084, which was significantly lower than the $945,474 brokerage income she earned from Phillip Securities. She had evaded a sum of $64,309 in taxes.
The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (Iras) prosecutor Vikna Rajah said the self-employed remisier made a false entry in each of the returns of income for the years of assessment (YAs) 2009 and 2010.
For YA 2009, she declared her income as $158,920 when in fact it was $269,258; and for YA 2010, $258,164 instead of $676,216.
This resulted in her being assessed to pay a lower amount of income tax.
Two other charges were withdrawn and compounded, for which she paid an additional $93,380 financial penalty.
Her lawyer Harbajan Singh said she had learnt a very painful lesson and had rendered full cooperation to the tax authorities.
In a statement yesterday, Iras reminded remisiers that they should include all income such as brokerage income, performance bonus and bad debts recovered in their tax returns.
They should claim only for tax deductions in respect of expenses that are incurred wholly and exclusively to produce their income.
These may include bad debts that are written off and entertainment expenses. Claims for such expenses must be supported by invoices and receipts or other relevant documents.
Teo could have been fined up to $10,000 and/or jailed for up to three years on each charge, as well as ordered to pay a penalty of treble the amount of tax undercharged.
elena@sph.com.sg