Economics tutor jailed five weeks, ordered to pay S$72,770 in penalties for tax evasion

AFTER being found guilty of underreporting the sales and profits of his tuition centre, and his income taxes, an economics tutor was sentenced to five weeks’ jail and ordered to pay S$72,770.79 in penalties.

Quek Ban Tong Edmund is the precedent partner of Economics Cafe Learning Centre, which conducts group and individual private tuition and sells economics books.

Quek and his wife were both partners of the centre, but the 51-year-old was the main person carrying out operations, the court heard on Friday (Aug 30).

In 2016, Quek was audited by the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (Iras), following which, he gave a letter of undertaking to keep proper records and issue receipts for his group tuition business. He also agreed to keep schedules for the purpose of income tax reporting.

Yet, while he issued receipts for group tuition and recorded these in the schedules, he did not issue receipts for individual tuition sessions and for book sales. Neither did he record these in the schedules.

He therefore underreported the sales and net profits of the tuition centre in its partnership income tax return for the year of assessment 2020.

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Quek’s share of profits under the tuition centre partnership was also underreported in his own personal income tax returns for the year of assessment 2020.

The total amount of trade income omitted by the tutor was S$150,867, resulting in $24,256.93 of income tax undercharged.