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An undertaker was sentenced to 25 days' imprisonment and fined S$74,540 after being found guilty of income tax evasion.

Grace Tay, 40, the sole proprietor of funeral business Grace Caskets, faced a total of three charges for income tax evasion.

Tay was also an employee of Teck Hin Undertaker, a business where her parents are partners, and from which she earned a monthly salary.

Omitted income earned from Grace Caskets

Investigations by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) revealed that Tay had only reported her employment income from Teck Hin Undertaker in her income tax for the Year of Assessment 2018. She omitted to declare the income that she earned from Grace Caskets.

Tay's case only surfaced when IRAS conducted an audit on Teck Hin Undertaker, reported TODAY.

IRAS said in a statement that the case was uncovered through one of their audit programmes.

These audit programmes are run across various industries to ensure tax compliance among individuals, businesses, and the self-employed.

Investigations further revealed that Tay had omitted her income with the wilful intent to evade taxes.

When her parents' business was being audited, Tay said in the interview that she was the sole proprietor of Grace Casket, but claimed that "business was minimal" and that she was not active in it, according to TODAY.

According to IRAS, Tay omitted a total of S$607,258 of income from Years of Assessment 2017 to 2019, resulting in S$56,573 in taxes undercharged.

One of the three charges she faced was proceeded on, while the others were taken in to consideration for sentencing.

The charge proceeded on was for the Year of Assessment 2018, where she omitted income of S$244,206, resulting in S$24,846 in taxes undercharged.

On Monday, Dec. 5, Tay was sentenced to 25 days in jail and a fine of S$74,540.

Her defence lawyer, Liu Hern Kuan of Insight Law, tried to argue for a lighter sentence as his client had cooperated with the authorities and voluntarily told IRAS about her omissions.

District Judge Janet Wang pointed out that Tay had no choice but to tell IRAS of her tax omissions, and that Tay was fully aware of her legal obligations, reported TODAY.

Not the first undertaker taken to task

Tay is not the first undertaker convicted for income tax evasion this year.

In Sept. 2022, veteran undertaker Roland Tay was charged with evading taxes.

He made false entries in his income tax returns for the Years of Assessment from 2011 to 2013 and allegedly evaded S$427,426 in income taxes.

"Audit findings have shown that small businesses (including funeral services) with business practices that involve substantial cash transactions, no or poor-record keeping and weak internal controls or processes have greater risk of tax non-compliance," said IRAS.

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