Doctor Chiang Currie, 55, a specialist eye consultant and eye surgeon was jailed for six months and ordered to pay a penalty of $117,888.30 for under-declaring income tax amounting to $149,591.00 in her tax returns for the Years of Assessment (YA) 2006 and 2007.

Doctor Chiang was convicted for one charge under Section 96A and one charge under Section 96 of the Income Tax Act. A third charge was withdrawn and compounded.

Section 96A was enacted in 2003 to deter serious tax evasion such as preparation or maintenance of false books of accounts or other records. A person convicted under this section may be liable to pay a penalty of four times the amount of tax evaded, and a fine of up to $50,000 or a jail term of up to five years or both.

Doctor Chiang owns and operates International Eye Clinic (“IEC”), and keeps records of the business operations using a computer program. Investigations revealed that she instructed her staff to download the actual income records of IEC onto a portable hard-disk daily, and would delete some payment records of her patients from the hard-disk, in particular those that were transacted in cash terms. The file with the incomplete payment records were then uploaded onto the office’s desktop computer. She based her tax reporting on the incomplete payment records and consequently under-declared her business income for 2006 and 2007. For the two charges, the total tax evaded amounted to $29,529.30.

Businesses must keep records to support declarations

IRAS would like to remind all businesses to keep proper records and accounts of all their transactions. Businesses must keep their records up-to-date and ensure that the records support their income tax and/or GST declarations.

Voluntary Disclosure Provides a Second Chance

Tax evasion and tax fraud are criminal offences punishable under the law and the Court imposes severe penalties for such offences. Businesses and individuals should come forward to report past tax evasion to IRAS immediately. IRAS will treat such disclosure as a mitigating factor when considering the penal charges. IRAS is also aware that some businesses and individuals could be negligent or unaware of their tax obligations, resulting in mistakes. IRAS views such mistakes differently from tax evasion.

To encourage taxpayers to disclose errors or omissions and to come forward voluntarily, IRAS will reduce penalties for voluntary disclosures that meet certain conditions under the “IRAS Voluntary Disclosure Programme”. Taxpayers who wish to disclose errors made in their declarations or report malpractices of others that might indicate tax evasion should email to [email protected] or write to:

Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore
Investigation & Forensics Division
55 Newton Road, Revenue House
Singapore 307987

IRAS will ensure that the identities of informants are kept confidential.

More information on voluntary disclosure is available in IRAS’ e-Tax Guide (PDF, 476KB).