Owner of interior design company to spend 50 days in prison for illegally collecting

[XingCai]

Owner of interior design company to spend 50 days in prison for illegally collecting GST

Published on May 13, 2015 6:23 PM
By Joanna Seow



SINGAPORE - The owner of an interior design business who collected goods and services tax (GST) despite not being registered to do so will have to serve a 50-day jail term.

Mohaideen Osman, 39, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to eight charges of unlawful GST collection and was ordered to pay a penalty of $26,590 - three times the illegal GST he collected - as well as a fine of $12,000. As he cannot pay, he will be jailed for 50 days. He must also pay the Comptroller of GST the money he pocketed illegally.

Mohaideen became the sole proprietor of Formz Design International in April 2009 but did not register for GST, said the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras) on Wednesday.

Investigations showed that Mohaideen issued eight sales invoices to the Agricultural Bank of China that year, which had engaged his company to provide interior design and renovation services. These invoices included 7 per cent GST, which came to $8,863 in total. Another 16 charges were considered during sentencing.