PRESS RELEASE

(Source : Information Services Department)

Community service order and fine for ex-senior manager over tax evasion

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     A taxpayer, convicted on June 18 at the Shatin Magistrates' Courts on five charges of evading salaries tax, was sentenced today (July 14) to 160 hours' community service and fined $20,000 for each charge, making a total fine of $100,000, equivalent to about 86 per cent of the tax evaded.

    The defendant, aged 44, is a former senior manager of an accounting firm. She pleaded guilty to five counts of evading tax, wilfully with intent, by making false statements or entries in her tax returns for the years of assessment 2004-05 to 2008-09, contrary to section 82(1)(b) of the Inland Revenue Ordinance (Cap. 112) (IRO).

    The court heard that in her tax returns for the years of assessment 2004-05 to 2008-09, the defendant stated that she had paid total rent of $900,000 to the landlord of a property in Kowloon and received partial refund of $864,375 from her employer. An investigation by the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) revealed that the defendant had actually never rented the property and the five tenancy agreements submitted to her employer were forged. By falsely claiming rental reimbursement, the defendant sought to reduce her assessable income for the five years by a total of $725,509 and the total tax evaded was $116,386.

    A spokesman for the IRD reminded taxpayers that tax evasion is a criminal offence under the IRO. Upon conviction, the maximum penalty for each charge is three years' imprisonment and a fine of $50,000 plus a further fine of three times the amount of tax evaded.

Ends/Monday, July 14, 2014
Issued at HKT 16:25

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