Lower Hutt tax advisor Patrick John
Renshaw has been given 10 months’ home detention for tax offences.
Renshaw was sentenced in Wellington District
Court today after having earlier pled guilty to 42 tax charges involving non-payment
of PAYE deductions and filing false GST and income tax returns, amounting to
more than $345,000.
Patrick Goggin, Inland Revenue’s Group
Manager of Investigations and Advice, said Renshaw devised a complex web of
transactions involving multiple entities that were a calculated attempt to
defraud the tax system.
“Renshaw filed false GST returns
relating to five fictitious property purchases and a vehicle for which he
claimed GST input credits totalling more than $155,000,” Mr Goggin said.
“In addition, he claimed management
fees for services purportedly performed by his accountancy and tax return firm
Resource Management Research Services Limited (RMRSL) for four associated
entities which were never performed or paid for, enabling those entities to
make false tax refund claims totalling $26,112.55.”
Renshaw also failed to pay more than $90,700
in PAYE deductions made from employees’ earnings at RMRSL.
“These actions were dishonest and a
fraud on not only Inland Revenue, and therefore the community, but also the
affected employees, who should be able to expect that tax deductions from their
wages are dealt with lawfully.
“The offending is even more deplorable,
due to the position of trust held by Renshaw as a tax agent.”
Inland Revenue devotes considerable
resources to the detection and investigation of potential tax offending and
will not hesitate to bring cases before the courts when dishonesty is found,
particularly where the perpetrators hold themselves out to the community as tax
experts or tax advisors, Mr Goggin said.
Renshaw has been ordered to pay reparation
of $13,000 in instalments and a lump sum of $2,500.
Media contact:
Pete van Schaardenburg
04 890 1698, 021 348 696
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