Jun 25, 2010
Company convicted of tax evasion
<!-- by line --> By Elena Chong
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A COMPANY which operates dormitories and manages foreign workers was fined a total of $12,000 and ordered to pay a penalty of $256,586 for tax evasion on Friday. A representative of Mini Environment Service (MES) admitted to three charges of preparing false books of account by including fictitious expenses totalling $371,684 in its statement of accounts for 2001 and 2002.
These related to sub-contract fees purportedly charged by various sub-contractors when no work or services were done for MES. The company claimed false tax deductions and under-reported its profits by the same amount for the years of assessment 2002 and 2003. Nine other similar charges were withdrawn and compounded for $1.1 million. The company could have been fined up to $10,000 on each charge and has to pay a penalty of treble the amount of tax undercharged.