IRAS conducts regular audits to identify businesses that do not comply with GST laws. The following case was uncovered from one of these audits.
Soh Kay Hee ("Soh"), a manager at Presido International, flouted the law when he unlawfully charged Goods and Services Tax (GST) on a total of 1,095 sales invoices issued to his customers. Presido is not registered for GST.
For unlawfully charging $19,772.80 as GST, Soh has to pay $136,118.40 in penalties and fines, which is more than 6 times the amount of GST. In default of paying $136,118.40, he has to serve a total of 320 days of imprisonment. In addition, the IRAS compounded some of his offences for $81,760.78. It is an offence for non GST-registered businesses to issue tax invoices to charge and collect GST on their sales. Offenders face a penalty of three times the amount of tax shown on the invoice and are liable to a fine of up to $10,000.
Source: IRAS, 25 Oct 2013