Whistleblowers to get up to $100k reward

[BuiKia]

Wonder if the whistleblower who made 10,000 caused his company to close down after the multi-million dollar fine.

SINGAPORE - Whistleblowers who sound the alarm about tax cheats could receive up to $100,000, after the maximum reward was raised by 10 times.

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) increased the sum in an attempt to flush out more offenders.

"We want to encourage people to come forward... and to compensate them for any possible risks," said its assistant commissioner of investigation and forensics, Mr Wilson Ong.

The Iras will pay a reward of 15 per cent of the tax recovered, up to $100,000. Before the increase, the maximum reward was $10,000.

Mr Ong said whistleblowers will be paid only if their information leads to taxes being recovered. They must also identify themselves to Iras when providing the tip-off if they want to receive the money.

"Based on our records, not all informers want to be rewarded," he said. "In fact, more than 50 per cent of informers do not want rewards. They share the information with us for more altruistic reasons, such as to ensure the fairness of the tax system."

Mr Ong said the reward scheme had been around for at least 20 years. He added that the largest sum paid out to date was $10,000, to a senior staff member who felt "very uncomfortable" with his company's practices.

The whistleblower's boss was trying to evade paying "a significant amount" of corporate income tax and ended up with a multi-million-dollar penalty after being caught.

Tax experts who spoke to The Sunday Times said offering money to informants is a common practice in other countries such as the United States and Britain.

They added that the Iras' bigger cash rewards give those in the know about possible wrong-doing a stronger financial motivation to blow the whistle.

Dr Ernest Kan, chairman of the Singapore Institute of Accredited Tax Professionals, said: "For Iras, this strategy appears to be planting more eyes and ears in the business community."

The authority also encourages taxpayers to come clean about their mistakes under its voluntary disclosure programme. Those who do so may receive either a reduced penalty or none at all.

Mr Ong said: "We believe that the majority of taxpayers want to comply with their tax obligations, but occasionally they may make mistakes in their tax returns due to the lack of care or awareness of their tax obligations."

Since Iras introduced the programme in 2009, it has received about 2,700 voluntary disclosures, which Mr Ong described as encouraging.

Most of them are individual income tax cases, including those that arise when people leave out their rental income when filing their returns, or employers who made errors when reporting their employees' salaries.

From Jan 1, the Iras is reducing the penalties under this programme to encourage more people to step forward.

For example, those who confess to past acts of "wilfully" evading tax may have their offences compounded, instead of being prosecuted in court. They may also face a lighter penalty of twice the amount in taxes that they have underpaid.

At the moment, convicted tax evaders face up to five years in jail and a penalty of four times the underpaid taxes.

Mr Ong added: "Taxpayers are encouraged to review their past tax returns and when in doubt, approach Iras for advice."

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

last time got up to 20k reward for reporting usage of pirated Windows software leh.......................now still got or not ?

i was damn tempted to report a former employer....................but later never do it scared kana bad karma...............now a bit regret leh..............

 

[Bigfuck]

last time got up to 20k reward for reporting usage of pirated Windows software leh.......................now still got or not ?

i was damn tempted to report a former employer....................but later never do it scared kana bad karma...............now a bit regret leh..............

I blow on the Leegime, including NParks, MINDEF, PA and the rest.

 

[YewCharKuay]

iras finding it difficult to nap tax evader? iras getting less efficient or those evaders are getter smarter?

 

[Sinkie]

Wonder if the whistleblower who made 10,000 caused his company to close down after the multi-million dollar fine.

As long as one can blow, it should not matter if it's a whistle or dick. Both will come to the same conclusion if jilted.

 

[hairylee]

$100 000 reward subjected to tax or not.

 

[YewCharKuay]

$100 000 reward subjected to tax or not.

thats a good question. negotiable with iras?

 

[Cestbon]

Cheating soft/gov ok.
But what most citizen want is to catch corruption in gov department because is tax payer money.

 

[Kinana]

last time got up to 20k reward for reporting usage of pirated Windows software leh.......................now still got or not ?

i was damn tempted to report a former employer....................but later never do it scared kana bad karma...............now a bit regret leh..............

You should have done it and you can still do it anytime you want cos a lot of companies, especially local ones do use pirated software. I encourage you to do it.

 

[Kinana]

Good move by IRAS. A lot of people will be encouraged to whistle blow.

 

[hairylee]

Good move by IRAS. A lot of people will be encouraged to whistle blow.

Then they will reduce the reward to $5000.

 

[Kinana]

Then they will reduce the reward to $5000.

How do you know?

Actually not necesssary at all. The reward is based on a percentage of tax recovered, so why would they do that?

 

[hairylee]

How do you know?

Actually not necesssary at all. The reward is based on a percentage of tax recovered, so why would they do that?

The Iras will pay a reward of 15 per cent of the tax recovered, up to $100,000. Before the increase, the maximum reward was $10,000.

If they can increase it, they can also reduce it.
Too many whistleblower!

 

[winnipegjets]

We need a whistleblower act on corruption. Reward is $1 million. Anyone to spill the beans on how PAP is fleecing taxpayers through the People's Association?

Aside, why are the MPs allowed to go on leisure trips at the expense of taxpayers via PA? Why do MPs need to bond with PA staff?

 

[halsey02]

$100 000 reward subjected to tax or not.

Remember IRAS is member of the "party" also, the party can name Laura Ong as the culprit & drag her name into the m&d..so can IRAS name the whistle blower...who will be his "whistle" blown to bits & even die, when the person got blown, get to know about it.

You want to BLOW??

 

[jw5]

We need a whistleblower act on corruption. Reward is $1 million. Anyone to spill the beans on how PAP is fleecing taxpayers through the People's Association?

Aside, why are the MPs allowed to go on leisure trips at the expense of taxpayers via PA? Why do MPs need to bond with PA staff?

Don't ask for too much, they may just come up with a secret reward NOT to blow the whistle in such cases.

 

[President]

As long as one can blow, it should not matter if it's a whistle or dick. Both will come to the same conclusion if jilted.

That depends on how hard you blow. We need good men and women who can do a good blow job to prevent bad accounting practices.