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Suspended jail sentence for property owner over
tax evasion
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A property owner convicted in the District Court of evading property
tax was today (September 3) sentenced to four months' imprisonment,
suspended for two years. He was also fined $1,051,062, representing
about 270% of the tax evaded.
A spokesman for the Inland Revenue
Department today reminded taxpayers that tax evasion was a criminal
offence under the Inland Revenue Ordinance.
The maximum penalty for each charge
is three years' imprisonment and a fine of $50,000 plus a further
fine of three times the amount of tax evaded.
The court was told that the defendant, Lam Fuk-wa, 46, was the sole
owner of a shop in Argyle Street, Kowloon. He subdivided the property
into two shops, which were referred to as Shop A and Shop B in the
respective tenancy agreements. The defendant let the two shops to
two different tenants and received monthly rental through his bank
accounts.
An investigation by the Inland Revenue
Department revealed that the defendant reported only the rental
income derived from Shop A in his tax returns, and omitted the rental
income derived from Shop B for the years of assessment 2000-01 to
2004-05. The total amount of rental income understated was $2,852,500
and the resultant tax evaded was $390,425.
The defendant pleaded guilty to five
counts of omitting rental income from tax returns for the years
of assessment, contrary to section 82(1)(a) of the Inland Revenue
Ordinance and five counts of signing tax returns for the relevant
years of assessment without reasonable grounds for believing the
same to be true, contrary to section 82(1)(d) of the ordinance.
Ends/Monday, September 3, 2007
Issued at HKT 15:46
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