A Wellington based property developer has been sentenced to two years jail time for multiple tax evasion charges. On April 12th the Wellington District Court sentenced Lance Christopher James to two years jail time for 19 separate tax evasion charges amounting to NZD 365 184. Lance James pleaded guilty to eight charges of failing to file a personal tax return or paying appropriate tax obligations, and 11 charges of failing to pass on employee PAYE deductions. Despite having repaid some of ... Read More

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has won its tax evasion case against Westpac Banking Corp, resulting in a NZ$918 million fine for the bank. The New Zealand High Court made a decision to dismiss Westpac’s challenge to IRD’s decision that the bank owes $586 million in taxes for a series of structured finance transactions. The IRD claimed that between 1998 and 2002 the bank undertook a series of offshore transactions whose sole purpose was tax evasion. The court proceedings centered around nine such ... Read More

Three years and four month worth of jail time has been given to a West Auckland man for 121 varying tax charges. Somsanit Phommasa, a West Auckland based tiler, admitted to 121 separate charges of GST, PAYE and income tax evasion. In the period between 1998 and 2007 is accused of having accumulated $1,617,705 worth of evaded taxes. Charges included imposing GST on customers while making no attempt to pass it onto the Inland Revenue Department. The GST fraud amounted to $479,607. Income tax ... Read More