Lower Hutt tax advisor Patrick John Renshaw has been given 10 months' home detention for tax offences.
Renshaw was sentenced in Wellington District Court today after having earlier pled guilty to 42 tax charges involving non-payment of PAYE deductions and filing false GST and income tax returns, amounting to more than $345,000.
Patrick Goggin, Inland Revenue's Group Manager of Investigations and Advice, said Renshaw devised a complex web of transactions involving multiple entities that were a calculated attempt to defraud the tax system.
"Renshaw filed false GST returns relating to five fictitious property purchases and a vehicle for which he claimed GST input credits totalling more than $155,000," Mr Goggin said.
"In addition, he claimed management fees for services purportedly performed by his accountancy and tax return firm Resource Management Research Services Limited (RMRSL) for four associated entities which were never performed or paid for, enabling those entities to make false tax refund claims totalling $26,112.55."
Renshaw also failed to pay more than $90,700 in PAYE deductions made from employees' earnings at RMRSL.
"These actions were dishonest and a fraud on not only Inland Revenue, and therefore the community, but also the affected employees, who should be able to expect that tax deductions from their wages are dealt with lawfully.
"The offending is even more egregious, due to the position of trust held by Renshaw as a tax agent."
Inland Revenue devotes considerable resources to the detection and investigation of potential tax offending and will not hesitate to bring cases before the courts when dishonesty is found, particularly where the perpetrators hold themselves out to the community as tax experts or tax advisors, Mr Goggin said.
Renshaw has been ordered to pay reparation of $13,000 in instalments and a lump sum of $2,500.