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S'porean Taoist priest, 48, gets 11 weeks' jail for tax evasion, pay S$126,000 penalty for declaring S$324,482 trade income as S$16,588
He repaid the sum he owed.
Belmont Lay
November 03, 2025, 07:12 PM
mothership.sg
A 48-year-old Taoist priest, Lim Yen Ei, has been sentenced to 11 weeks’ jail and ordered to pay penalties of S$125,962.20 for evading S$41,987 in income tax for the 2020 year of assessment.
Five other charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of the Singaporean man's sentencing.
Provided religious services
Lim owns San Jie Hun Xuan Dao Tan as a sole proprietorship between 2013 and 2020.He provided religious services, such as officiating and performing prayers at religious events and festivals, as well as conducting funeral rites.
He was paid in cash or via cheques, bank transfer or PayNow for the services rendered.
He falsely stated his trade income in his income tax returns with the wilful intent to evade tax.
Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) investigations revealed that Lim significantly understated his trade income for 2020 year of assessment.
He had declared only S$16,588 when his actual income was S$324,482, which was nearly 20 times the declared amount.
How he did it
Sometime in 2019, the accused engaged Florence Piong, an accountant, to assist him with the filing of his income tax returns, court documents seen by Mothership wrote.On Jun. 25, 2020, Piong filed the accused’s income tax returns on the accused’s behalf.
In the Form B submitted, the accused stated that under-reported his trade income.
As a consequence of the accused reporting his trade income as only S$16,588, IRAS assessed that the accused did not have to pay any income tax for 2020 year of assessment.
This led to S$41,987 in taxes being undercharged.
Following investigations, IRAS issued additional notices of assessment to recover the tax undercharged on Aug. 2, 2021 and Mar. 2, 2023.
The accused has made full restitution. He was not arrested and did not spend any time in remand.
Report tax evasion
IRAS said offenders may face a penalty of up to four times the amount of tax evaded.Jail terms may also be imposed.
Businesses and individuals are encouraged to immediately disclose any past tax mistakes.
IRAS will treat such disclosures as mitigating factors when considering action to be taken.
A reward based on 15 per cent of the tax recovered, capped at S$100,000, would be given to informants if the information and/or documents provided lead to a recovery of tax that would have otherwise been lost.
All payments are at the discretion of the Comptroller.
IRAS will ensure that the identities of informants are kept strictly confidential.
Top photo via Taoist Federation
