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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.