Latest news with #InlandRevenueDepartment
NZ Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- NZ Herald
Covid wage-subsidy cheat Luke Daniel Rivers cooked up fake employees to steal nearly $1 million
He spent a term at a local grammar school but couldn't afford the fees, so he went to work, then studied and became an accountant. He changed his name by statutory declaration in June 2004, believing an English-sounding name would enhance his career prospects. In July 2006, he got a new Inland Revenue Department (IRD) number under the name of Luke Rivers. However, he did not tell the tax department he still held another tax number under his birth name. Prosecutor Fiona Culliney said the offending Rivers was charged with started in 2011, when he evaded child support by filing multiple tax returns misrepresenting his income. But when the Covid-19 pandemic presented a new opportunity, the scale of his offending escalated. As the Government rolled out wage subsidies and small-business support schemes, Rivers cooked up an elaborate con. He pocketed about $906,000 and attempted to swindle a further $724,105.60. The fantasy world of his fraud scheme included the names of three Indian 'employees' who had never been in New Zealand. He made 28 applications on behalf of eight companies he controlled, with a dozen of those applications fraudulent. Luke Daniel Rivers's fraudulent applications for wage subsidies named three "employees" who had never been to NZ. Photo / Dean Purcell In the small-business cashflow scheme he acquired about $29,000 and made failed applications for a further $41,600. The court heard Rivers was the sole director and shareholder of Your Payroll Limited, Your Refund Limited, Accounting 4 Me Limited and Save On Mortgage Limited. In multiple wage-subsidy applications he named himself as a full-time employee. Rivers was charged in June 2023 and initially denied the allegations. By October that year, it seemed a trial lasting four or five weeks would happen. But in April this year, Rivers admitted 29 charges. Culliney said Rivers' offending was prolonged and involved the abuse of his position as a chartered accountant. 'On that basis, [the chances of] a discount for character, if any's available, must be very slim.' The court heard Rivers cited his Chinese culture and 'expectations on him to be financially successful' as influencing the offending. 'He's well-educated and a successful businessman,' Culliney said. 'This is a particularly sophisticated and deliberate scheme of fraud. It's opportunistic in the sense that the country was in crisis, but it wasn't a situation where it was easy enough to dip into client funds.' In November 2020, Rivers opened an Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) account in Singapore and sent $100,000 to it. In June 2021, he opened an account with Standard Chartered bank under a Chinese name. In total, $696,243.50 was sent to that account. In December 2020, he sent $250,000 to the OCBC account on the same day he received that money from the Government. Defence counsel Baden Meyer said Rivers was not a demonstrative man, but he was remorseful. The defendant had already repaid $1 million. 'The payment of reparation …. is a practical demonstration of his remorse," Meyer said. Chartered accountant Luke Daniel Rivers used his skills to cheat the wage subsidy scheme. Photo / Dean Purcell The prosecution said seven years' jail should be the starting point, and the defence said six years. Judge Kathryn Maxwell said the amount of money in the fraud was an aggravating factor. She said Rivers' use of two IRD numbers allowed him to misrepresent his income for seven years. He forged documents to get three IRD numbers for the Indian people and also made false employment returns. Rivers used real people's names and details to give the wage-subsidy applications a veneer of legitimacy. Rivers abused subsidies which were established to support businesses in need at a time of high stress, Judge Maxwell said. 'It is, more broadly, fraud against taxpayers as a whole.' Rivers received a 10% discount for the reparations he made and a 5% discount for his guilty pleas. He was sentenced to five years and 11 months' imprisonment. Judge Maxwell told him: 'You did not take what you needed. There was a smorgasbord of dishonesty and considerable personal gain.'
Borneo Post
5 days ago
- Business
- Borneo Post
Yong: New tax rule on associations should be rescinded
Yong pointing at the Practice Note 1/2025 at the LHDN website. KOTA KINABALU (Aug 6): The government is strongly urged to rescind its move to tax the fundraising activities of community organisations and associations because the funds raised by the organisations and associations and other voluntary bodies are badly needed for their own needs. Former chief minister Datuk Yong Teck Lee said the new tax rule is also causing confusion, distress and anxiety to society and community leaders. He said the Practice Note 1/2025, issued on March 24 by the Inland Revenue Department, extended the definition of taxable person as a 'body of persons' that includes community associations. 'I echo the views of Tan Sri T.C. Goh, president of the Gabungan Persatuan Cina Sabah (HuaZhong), that this new tax will create unnecessary burden for ten of thousands of active NGOs nationwide, where any excess from fundraising activities is not for commercial purposes but for long-term community programmes,' he said in a statement on Wednesday. Adding to the burden of yet another new tax is the scary hazard of having to comply with new tax regulations because any misstep or mistake or non-compliance, however unintended, could expose the association leaders to criminal charges of tax evasion, he pointed out. 'It is a fact that most, if not all, associations cannot afford the professional services of accountants and auditors and tax planners. 'Association leaders consist mainly of selfless people who spend their own time and money on social and community service. 'Community fundraising itself is already a very arduous task, with community leaders literally having to beg sponsors. The community leaders and sponsors are the same ordinary business people who have recently been hit by SST (Sales and Services Tax), e-invoicing on all transactions and stamp duties on employment contracts. In spite of optimistic statements coming from ministers, the reality is that the business environment is subdued,' he added. Yong, who is the president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), called on elected representatives and ministers who have been accorded VIP treatment at association functions to speak up and do something before even more damage is inflicted on community organisations and the welfare of society.
Otago Daily Times
01-08-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
Harsh times cited for liquidation
Harsh economic times have been cited as the reason for the liquidation of a Wanaka interior design business. Wanaka Interiors, which was incorporated in March 2022, was placed in liquidation by shareholders resolution last month. In their first report, liquidators Trevor and Emma Laing, of Laing Insolvency Specialists, said the business, owned by Celeste and Isaac Benefield, provided interior design services and retail of high-end home goods. Economic conditions resulted in declining revenue and the decision to close the retail operation was made. The decision was then made to formally wind down the business, new tenants were secured for the company's leased premises and company assets were realised. There was insufficient value to repay creditors. The shareholders were unable to provide any further funding or support and the company was placed in liquidation. The remaining company assets comprised unsold sundry plant and stock items, funds held in the company bank account and a small number of accounts receivable. There were six registrations recorded on the Personal Property & Securities Register, one registration related to a general security agreement from the company banker, the remaining related to security over goods supplied or leased items. The liquidators had been advised that all entitlements to previous employees had been paid in full. It was understood the company had outstanding Inland Revenue Department liabilities relating to recent GST. The exact amount of the preferential debt was being confirmed and it was not expected to be significant. At this stage, the liquidators were aware of 42 unsecured creditors, owed just over $98,000 and, given the limited remaining assets available for realisation, it was unlikely there would be a dividend payment for them. — Allied Media
Scoop
14-07-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Former Tax Agent Sentenced For COVID Relief Fraud
Press Release – Inland Revenue Department A former Auckland chartered accountant was sentenced to community detention for fraudulently using the Small Business Cashflow (SBC) loan scheme to get nearly $95,000 for himself. Howard Kane Taylor was sentenced in the Auckland District court on 11 July. He pleaded guilty to the 8 charges just days before his trial was due to start earlier this year. Taylor chose to abuse the scheme and benefit off the taxpayer during the COVID 19 pandemic, a time of significant stress and uncertainty for people and their businesses. In April 2020, the Small Business Cashflow Loan scheme was introduced to help small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic. It was designed to help those most in need during an unprecedented time of stress. Between 28 May 2020 and 29 June 2020, Taylor made eight SBC loan applications each requesting an amount of $11,800 for various businesses – a total of $94,400. In August 2020 IR began an investigation and found none of the money was paid into the accounts of the companies he had made the applications for. The money went into Taylor's accounts. All of the SBC loans have been repaid to IR. Taylor was a registered Tax Agent with Inland Revenue at the time of the offending but was removed from the list of tax agents by IR in November 2022. He was sentenced to six months community detention and ordered to complete 120 hours of community work. The judge allowed discounts on his sentence for his charity work, repaying the loans and because of his poor health.
Otago Daily Times
10-07-2025
- Business
- Otago Daily Times
FamilyBoost Fizzer
Changes to the early childhood education FamilyBoost package announced this week cannot disguise the fact this National flagship policy has been a fizzer. Prospective voters were told it was expected to help 130,000 low and middle-income families, boosting after-tax pay by up to $75 each week. But only 60,000 families have benefited, and in the first nine months of the scheme only 249 families consistently got the full $75 a week. In the election campaign, FamilyBoost was sold to the public as a rebate system which would be administered by the Inland Revenue Department "with rebates paid directly to parents on a fortnightly basis". Information on childcare expenditure would be provided to IRD directly by childcare providers using existing systems, making the process simple for providers and seamless for parents, according to the campaign document. But the party had not done its homework. As the IRD pointed out in its regulatory impact statement (RIS) on the proposal "administering a childcare tax credit as outlined in pre-election documents requires access to fees information that is linked to individual parents or caregivers, the children in their care, and to their family income for a broad segment of society. Currently no government agency has this fees information." We would be surprised if this could not have been checked before the party flogged its policy to voters. Rather than wait for a direct payments system to be developed, the government was understandably keen to find a way to deliver its promise. It came up with a system whereby eligible families have to pay their fees up front but then can make a claim for part of them. This requires collecting three months of receipts from the early childhood education (ECE) centre and sending them to IRD. This was criticised for being too onerous and not providing the immediate boost to family funds struggling parents might have been hoping for. Finance Minister Nicola Willis has tried to put a brave face on the debacle, but it was only when information about the low uptake came out in April, she said she would be looking at making changes to the scheme. She has seemed keen to blame IRD for over-estimating how many families would qualify for the full rebate (21,000) but IRD made it clear in its RIS the information available was patchy. It said lack of comprehensive ECE fees data from any government agency required it to make assumptions about the severity of the policy problem and the factors causing it, as well as the impact of different options. "This makes it difficult for any government agency to provide advice on how effective existing or new interventions are on the overall affordability of ECE." There will be hopes the changes to the scheme will enable it to benefit far more families, as the proportion of fees which can be claimed has increased from 25% to 40%. The maximum payment is now $120 a week (this would only be available to those paying $300 or more in fees weekly). The amount families can earn yearly to be eligible has increased from $180,000 to $229,000. This has already prompted criticism the scheme will benefit high income earners disproportionately as they already access ECE more because they can afford to. The Office of Early Childhood Education, which was asked for its ideas on the scheme, suggested a rebate of 25% for higher income households and a 50% one for those on lower incomes. It also wanted the rebate cap of $975 a quarter to be per child, rather than per family. Concerns, widely expressed, around the claiming process have not abated. Ms Willis says further work will be done on longer term improvements including ECE providers giving fees information directly to the IRD. The scheme is among the plethora of funding programmes which will be examined in the Early Childhood Education Funding Review announced last month and due to report to the government in about a year. It remains to be seen whether any of its findings will help political parties come up with realistic and comprehensive early childhood funding policies rather than the poorly planned and executed FamilyBoost.
