Businessman jailed six months for tax evasion

THE boss of a firm that made plastic machine components was sentenced to six months in jail on Friday for evading $187,846 in income tax. Kong Kim Soon, 59, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $563,538 to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras).

This is three times the amount he evaded between 2006 and 2008 by omitting his business income from Catalyst Technologies in his tax returns.

Three similar charges for the years 2003, 2004 and 2005 were taken into consideration by the district judge when sentencing him.

When Kong pleaded guilty on March 11, the court heard he was aware that Catalyst Technologies had been making profits throughout these years but had failed to declare them in his income tax returns.

The omissions were discovered in a regular audit conducted by Iras on businesses.

Koon could have been jailed for up to three years.

Catalyst has since closed down.

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