First CPA charged with helping client evade tax

[Captain Needa]

Feb 11, 2011

First CPA charged with helping client evade tax

By Francis Chan

TAX agent Ong Boon Lee has become the first certified public accountant (CPA) here accused of helping a client evade income tax.

Ong, 48, who owns Benedict & Associates, was charged on Friday and will face court again on Mar 11.

He allegedly helped a client, Darma Consultants, set up a shell company in the British Virgin Islands.

It is claimed that Ong then falsified expenses of $86,528 in Darma's income tax returns for the 2005 and 2006 years of assessment, purportedly as payments made to the shell company in the Carribean.

This led to Dharma being undercharged taxes of $12,365 by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore's (Iras).

Darma was convicted in the district court on Friday for claiming fictitious expenses and under-reporting profits for the 2005 and 2006 tax years.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.

 

[Grand Moff Tarkin]

Accountant charged with helping company evade tax
Posted: 11 February 2011 1950 hrs
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SINGAPORE : A 48-year-old man is the first certified public accountant to be charged with helping a company evade income tax.

Ong Boon Lee is accused of helping the firm set up a shell company in the British Virgin Islands.

Ong allegedly helped Darma Consultants, a firm that supplies engineers to oilfield companies, falsify expenses totalling more than S$86,000 in its income tax returns for 2005 and 2006.

The payments were allegedly made to the shell company in the British Virgin Islands.

A statement from the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore said the total amount of tax undercharged came up to more than S$12,000.

Darma Consultants has been convicted for claiming fictitious expenses and under-reporting its profits and was fined S$6,000.

It also had to pay a penalty of some S$37,000, which is three times the undercharged tax.

Ong, who owns Benedict & Associates auditing firm, is represented by lawyer Lawrence Lee.

He will be back in court on March 11.

- CNA/al