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Publications and Press Releases :
Press Release
: News Archives
Taxpayer jailed for false claims of dependent
parent allowances
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A taxpayer convicted today (May 11) at Kowloon City Magistrates'
Court of evading salaries tax has been jailed for two months.
Shum Chi-hung, 58, pleaded guilty
to six charges of wilfully, with intent, evading tax by making false
statements in connection with claims for Dependent Parent Allowances
(DPA) and Additional Dependent Parent Allowances (ADPA) under the
Inland Revenue Ordinance (IRO) for the years of assessment 1998/99
to 2003/04, contrary to section 82(1)(c) of the IRO.
The court heard that Shum made the relevant claims either in his
tax returns or in his letters to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD)
for the years of assessment 1998/99 to 2003/04. In his returns or
letters, he made false statements that his parents were living with
him continuously throughout the years of assessment in question.
In accordance with statements made in the returns and the letters,
allowances were granted to the defendant in respect of his parents.
Departmental investigations revealed
that Shum's parents were not ordinarily living in Hong Kong at all
material times. During the six years of assessment 1998/99 to 2003/04,
the defendant's father stayed in Hong Kong for only four days and
his mother for only six days. However, one of the requisite criteria
for claiming DPA under the IRO was that the parent must ordinarily
reside in Hong Kong. The additional requirement for claiming ADPA
is that the parent must be residing with the claimant continuously
throughout the year of assessment and the parent must not be paying
the claimant in full for his or her care, either in money or in
kind.
For the six years of assessment 1998/99
to 2003/04, the defendant had made false claims of $330,000 for
DPA and $330,000 for ADPA. The total tax undercharged was $42,794.
A departmental spokesman reminded
taxpayers that tax evasion was a criminal offence under the IRO.
Upon conviction, the maximum sentence for each charge is three years'
imprisonment and a fine of $50,000, plus a further fine equivalent
to three times the amount of tax evaded.
Ends/Thursday, May 11, 2006
Issued at HKT 18:39
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