19 October 2012

A wholesale trader, Seow Ming Liang who is the sole- proprietor of Geek Enterprise, dealing in wholesale import and export of computer component parts, is the first to be charged for giving false information in the voluntary registration for GST for his business. He was also charged for creating fictitious entries in his GST returns to make a fraudulent claim for GST refunds.

In 2010, he made a false entry in the GST Registration form by stating that he would be making taxable supplies of $300,000 in the next 12 months. In his first GST return for the accounting period from 1 to 31 July 2010, Seow made false entries in his GST returns, resulting in net GST refund claims of $35,670. In addition, Seow had also created two fictitious purchase invoices when IRAS requested for documents to support his claim for GST refunds.

Seow was sentenced to six weeks’ jail and ordered to pay a penalty of $298,012. Seow pleaded guilty to three charges with one remaining charge taken into consideration for sentencing

Offenders face a penalty of up to three times of the amount of tax undercharged and/or imprisonment up to seven years for claiming input tax on fictitious purchases.

Source: Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore