Working with customers to get their tax right is IR’s preferred approach. However, when all other avenues fail, we consider taking prosecution action.
IR has more than 90 cases before the courts as of the end of June and sentences have been handed down over recent months for tax evasion and other offences.
Tax cases receive more media attention each year reflecting public concern about appropriate action being taken when taxpayers break the law. Here are tax cases Inland Revenue has taken through the courts to sentencing in recent months.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Peter G Lochead
A Christchurch man has been sentenced to 7.5 months home detention and 120 hours community work on one representative charge of aiding and abetting another person in their failure to account to the Commissioner for tax deductions made from employees’ wages.
Lochead was the sole director/shareholder of an engineering services company which went in to voluntary liquidation in 2017 owing $461,803.34 to Inland Revenue. The company had failed to account for $122,734.85 of PAYE deductions for 11 months.
His tax agent and business advisor confirmed Lochead would have paid trade creditors and wages in preference to Inland revenue and other creditors.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Allan David Gilmour
An Auckland carpet layer has been fined for not filing GST and PAYE returns.
Allan David Gilmour was sentenced in the Manukau District Court and fined $4,600 and ordered to pay $130 court costs.
Gilmour faced 23 charges. For three years he didn’t file income tax returns and from September 2015 until September 2018 he didn’t file GST returns.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Lesley Marie Keriana Waaka
An Auckland woman with a fictitious gift basket business, who fabricated data in GST returns, has been sentenced to 8 months home detention.
Lesley Marie Keriana Waaka also used forged bank statements to try to justify her GST refund claims.
The company she set up never had actual taxable activity and was used by Waaka as a vehicle to claim fraudulent GST returns. The court heard her offending was pre-meditated and persistent.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Lute Tonga Vailolo
Lute Tonga Vailolo was sentenced to 11 months home detention. https://www.media.ird.govt.nz/articles/false-gst-and-income-tax-claims-lead-to-home-detention/
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Lee Hinehou Hare
A former New Plymouth company director who used forged documents to try get GST refunds she wasn’t entitled to has been sentenced to community detention for tax fraud. https://www.media.ird.govt.nz/articles/community-detention-for-tax-fraud/
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V T A George Jones
A 78-year-old former director of several Christchurch hospitality businesses was sentenced to six months home detention when he appeared in court in August.
George Jones ran the businesses with his son https://www.media.ird.govt.nz/articles/christchurch-businessman-sentenced-to-home-detention/
He faced 7 representative charges of aiding and abetting his son in making tax deductions from staff wages while not intending to pass them on to IR. He’s an experienced director and has led 39 companies since 1993.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Satend Kumar Ram
An Auckland builder has been fined $5,800 and $520 (130 x 4) court costs for failing to fill in PAYE, GST and income tax returns.
Satend Kumar Ram faced 29 charges of aiding and abetting Brim Construction in failing to file tax.
Mr Ram should have the filed:
• Monthly PAYE schedules from September 2017 to February 2019,
• GST periods between July 2017 to November 2018 and January 2019, and
• Income tax for the year ending 31 March 2018.
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Tony Edward Cree
Tony Edward Cree was sentenced to 3 years in prison. https://www.media.ird.govt.nz/articles/false-tax-refund-claims-send-man-to-prison/
Commissioner of Inland Revenue V Mark Glanville Thompson
Former company director Mark Glanville Thompson was sentenced to 3 months community detention when he appeared for sentence in Auckland in July.
Thompson aided and abetted a company in liquidation to collect PAYE, child support payments, KiwiSaver, student loan and superannuation deductions but didn’t pass them on to IR.
They totalled $142,501.83. The company, Stonex Systems, failed to account for employer deductions for over a year. Thompson was the sole director and was in control of payments to Inland Revenue.