S'porean woman, 27, charged with evading over S$370,000 in income tax

A 27-year-old Singaporean was charged in court on Oct. 24 for tax evasion.

Chong Jia Ling, Genevieve, was charged with the following offences:

• Making false entries in her individual income tax returns for years of assessment in 2021 and 2022, resulting in tax undercharged amounting to S$371,859.
• Providing false documents to the Comptroller of Income Tax to support fraudulent expense claims amounting to S$149,453 for year of assessment 2021 and S$45,190 for year of assessment 2022.

According to a press release from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) on Oct. 27, Chong is a businesswoman who "distributed and sold products" in 2020 and 2021.

Reminder to comply with tax rules

IRAS said it runs checks across various industries to ensure tax compliance, including among the self-employed:

"Between 2020 and 2024, IRAS audited and investigated more than 30 multi-level marketing (“MLM”) agents for anomalies in their tax reporting.

IRAS reminds all commission agents, including MLM agents, to accurately report their full gross commission as revenue.

Any remuneration received from related companies must be reasonable, reflect market value for the service performed and supported by proper documentation."

It further warned against incorporating multiple companies or entities without genuine commercial purposes, for the primary purpose of splitting or shifting income.

Such agents should note that such arrangements may be disregarded, with all commission income assessed directly to the agent.

Furthermore, commission agents are reminded to only claim legitimate business expenses that are directly related to income generation and are supported by the proper documentation.

Punishment and reward

For those who wilfully evade tax, offenders may face a penalty of up to four times the amount of tax evaded, a fine of up to S$50,000 and/ or imprisonment of up to five years.

Offenders who give false replies verbally or in writing to any IRAS request for information in order to evade tax will face a penalty of three times the amount of tax undercharged and be liable to a fine not exceeding S$10,000 and/or imprisonment of up to three years.

IRAS also reminded the public that they can make voluntary disclosures of past tax mistakes via their website, which will be taken in consideration when it decides on the action to be taken.

A reward is also offered for information leading to the recovery of tax revenue:

"A reward based on 15 per cent of the tax recovered, capped at S$100,000, would be given to informants if the information and/ or documents provided lead to a recovery of tax that would have otherwise been lost.

All payments are at the discretion of the Comptroller. IRAS will ensure that the identities of informants are kept strictly confidential."

Top image from IRAS Facebook.