Tax claim for dead mother
A COMPANY director who fiddled the taxman by claiming he was still supporting his mother three years after she died was fined $25,625 yesterday.
Kong Pan saved himself $7,875 by pretending his mother was dependent on him in the tax years 1991-92 and 1992-93.
But when tax inspectors checked his returns against death records they discovered Kong's mother had died in 1990.
Kong admitted making incorrect statements in his tax returns when he appeared at Kwun Tong Magistrate's Court.
He was fined three times the amount he would have saved and an additional $1,000 for each false return.
A tax evader can be sentenced to a maximum three years' jail and a fine of $20,000, in addition to three times the amount of tax undercharged.
Inland Revenue Deputy Commissioner Wong Ho-sang said Kong's case was the fifth such prosecution this year.
He said: 'From time to time we examine lists of dependent allowance claims and check them with the birth and death registry.
'We have a system of cross-referencing these kinds of claims so people do not get away with it for too long.'
