A West Auckland tiler who avoided paying $1.6 million in tax was jailed when he appeared in Waitakere District Court today.
Somasanit Phommasa was jailed for three years and four months after previously admitting 121 charges of GST, PAYE and income tax evasion.
Over eight years, Phommasa charged his customers GST but did not make any payments to Inland Revenue - amassing $479,607 in unaccounted-for GST.
He also arranged for Thai nationals to come to New Zealand to do tiling work, but failed to deduct PAYE from them or any of his employees.
He also did not file income tax returns during this period - avoiding paying $1.1 million in income tax, the court was told.
Deposits exceeding $3.5 million were made into his bank account between 1998 and 2007, as were large cash withdrawals.
Inland Revenue's assurance investigations manager, Richard Philp, said today's sentence sent a strong message to those involved in tax evasion - those who tried to cheat the system would be caught and their actions treated very seriously.
"Such crimes rip off the community, as well as making it hard for honest businesses to compete on an even playing field," he said.
