IRAS audit uncovers fraudulent claims
Robofusion Asia Pte Ltd (“Robofusion”), a company that supplies robotic ice-cream kiosks, has been convicted of evading the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by overstating GST input tax on its GST return.
Robert Taramelli (“Taramelli”), the company director, was also convicted for his role in assisting the company to evade GST.
Court Sentences For his offence of wilful intent to assist Robofusion to evade tax, Taramelli was sentenced to 6 weeks’ in jail and ordered to pay a penalty of $107,003.55, which is three times of the GST input tax of $35,667.85.
Robofusion was sentenced to pay a penalty of $107,003.55, which is three times the amount of GST undercharged, and a fine of $8,000.
IRAS’ Audits Detected Anomalies in GST Returns IRAS detected anomalies in the declarations made by Taramelli in Robofusion’s GST returns during its regular audits of GST-registered businesses.
IRAS’ investigations revealed that Taramelli assisted Robofusion to evade tax by maintaining a false record, namely, by including a false invoice dated 10 Sep 2013 that he had created, purportedly from a supplier, showing GST amounting to $35,667.85, into Robofusion’s taxable purchases listing. He included the GST amount of $35,667.85 in the amount of input tax claimed in Robofusion’s GST return for the accounting period 1 Sep 2013 to 30 Sep 2013. The false invoice was for the supposed purchase of 10 units of a machine by Robofusion from the supplier for the total amount of $509,540.72.
Investigations revealed that the actual tax invoice, which had the same invoice number, had already been claimed in Robofusion’s GST return for an earlier accounting period ended Jun 2013.
Severe Penalties for Fraudulent GST Claims It is a serious offence to claim GST input tax on fictitious purchases or understate output tax on sales. Offenders face a penalty of three times the amount of tax undercharged, a fine not exceeding $10,000, and/or imprisonment of up to seven years.
Reporting of Malpractices
Source: IRAS