25 October 2012

A sole-proprietor of Xcellence Comm, Eric Lau Giang Boon who is in the business of import, export, distribution, sales and servicing of IT and computer equipment has been sentenced to eight weeks’ jail and a penalty of $127,000 for making fictitious entries in his GST returns.

Lau had inflated the input tax claims from 1 April 2007 to 31 December 2007, which resulted in net GST refund claims of over $42,000.

Lau pleaded guilty to three charges of wilful intent to evade tax. Two other charges were taken into account for sentencing.

Offenders face a penalty of up to three times of the amount of tax undercharged, and a fine not exceeding $10,000, and/or imprisonment up to seven years.

Source: Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS)