Case and status
Edmund Quek Ban Tong, precedent partner of Economics Café Learning Centre, received five weeks in prison and S$72,770.79 in penalties for evading S$24,256.93 in income tax. Omitted YA 2020 income totalled S$150,867.
Facts, amounts and outcome
Revenue from individual tuition and economics-textbook sales was left out of the partnership’s Form P, and Quek’s share of profits was also understated in his Form B. After a 2016 audit, he had been placed under IRAS’ Post Compliance Surveillance programme. A 2020 review found deliberate evasion, making him the second repeat offender under that programme prosecuted by IRAS. The release encourages accurate systems and digital records rather than treating an earlier audit as the end of monitoring.
Records and supporting evidence
IRAS stresses accurate records of business income, costs and taxable transactions, supported by real invoices, receipts, bank statements and payment evidence. The release specifies five-year retention for the relevant income-tax years or GST accounting periods. Unsupported claims may be challenged, and record-keeping can be an obligation separate from paying tax. Digitised records should remain complete and traceable to the underlying transaction.
Disclosure, reporting and rewards
IRAS encourages taxpayers to correct past errors and report suspected tax malpractices. The release says disclosure may be considered when deciding enforcement action; it is not a blanket promise of immunity. Where the release describes informant rewards, qualifying information leading to otherwise lost tax recovery may attract 15% of recovered tax, capped at S$100,000, at IRAS’ discretion. Informant identities are kept confidential. Use the official release links for its reporting and disclosure channels.
Official source
This report is independently written from the IRAS release dated above. Case status, policy announcements and historical figures refer to that release.
Read the complete IRAS release ↗