Mr Wong Kee Yock (“WKY”), a partner of All Family Food Court (“AFFC”) had wilfully with intent to evade tax, consistently understated his share of profits from AFFC for the Years of Assessment (YA) 2000 to 2005. The total amount understated was $536,534.

He has therefore committed offences under Section 96 (1)(b) of the Income Tax Act (Cap 134).

WKY is the last of three partners of AFFC to be charged for tax evasion. The first two, Ang Tin Yong (ATY) and Ang Boon Chye (ABC), were sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on 12 Dec 2008 and 6 Feb 2009 respectively for intentionally falsifying the Statement of Accounts so as to under-declare the profits from the food court operations. They were also ordered to pay penalties of $137,185.47 and $205,698.21 respectively.

Modus Operandi

WKY knew that both ATY and ABC had intentionally falsified the Statement of Accounts so that the falsified figures therein could be used to under-declare the three partners’ share of profits in their respective income tax returns for the said YAs. Accordingly, applying this fraudulent scheme and with the intention to evade tax, WKY went on to falsify his income tax returns by under-declaring his share of partnership profits. WKY then submitted the falsified income tax returns to IRAS for the YAs 2000 to 2005.

As partners in businesses are taxed on their share of profits based on the profit-sharing ratios agreed by the respective partners, partners are responsible for declaring their share of partnership income accurately in their individual income tax returns.

WKY has therefore intentionally put himself in a lower tax payable position. WKY also knew that by making such false entries in the Form Bs, his income tax would be undercharged and he would thereby evade tax for the said YAs, for the income he received from AFFC.

The details of share of profit understated are as follows:

The total amount of profits WKY understated for the stated YAs for AFFC was S$536,534.00.

Court Sentences

Mr Wong Kee Yock pleaded guilty to 6 charges of evading tax with wilful intent, by understating the profits of his businesses for the Years of Assessment 2000 to 2005 and his sentences are as follows:

1. Sentenced to 1 month imprisonment for the 1st charge,1 month imprisonment for the 2nd charge, 1 month imprisonment for the 3rd charge, 1 month imprisonment for the 4th charge, 1 month imprisonment for the 5th charge, and 1 month imprisonment for the 6th charge, sentences to run consecutively.
2. Ordered to pay a penalty of 3 times the amount of tax undercharged of $83,135.04 in respect of the 6 charges, which amounted to $249,405.12. In default of payment of the penalty, the default sentence would be 5 weeks of imprisonment for the 1st charge and 5 weeks of imprisonment for the 2nd charge, 5 weeks imprisonment for the 3rd charge, 2 weeks imprisonment for the 4th charge, 2 weeks imprisonment for the 5th charge, and 2 weeks imprisonment for the 6th charge.

Voluntary Disclosure

Taxpayers are encouraged to conduct periodic reviews of their income tax returns/declarations and disclose any error voluntarily. While IRAS believes the majority of taxpayers are compliant, some taxpayers could have been negligent or unaware of their tax obligations, thus resulting in mistakes.

To encourage taxpayers to disclose errors or omissions and to come forward voluntarily in a timely manner, IRAS has reduced the penalty under its Voluntary Disclosure Programme for voluntary disclosures which meet qualifying conditions. The qualifying conditions and further details are listed in IRAS’ e-Tax Guide on “IRAS Voluntary Disclosure Programme”, which is available at www.iras.gov.sg.

Members of the public may report malpractices

While IRAS believes the vast majority of taxpayers are law-abiding and contribute their fair share of taxes, strong deterrent action will be taken against those who wilfully understate their income, even if the amount evaded is small. Those who assist others to defraud the government by falsifying records that result in under-declaration of income will also be penalised.

Taxpayers who wish to disclose errors made by them in their past income tax returns or anyone who wishes to report malpractices that might indicate tax evasion may write to IRAS at the following addresses:

Email: [email protected]
Address: Investigation & Forensics Division,
55 Newton Road,
Singapore 307987

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

Issued by Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore