Jail time for tax agent
Registered tax agent, Nigel Bradshaw, who had been previously investigated by the tax Practitioners Board (TBP) and had his registration terminated in 2015, has been sentenced to a one-year jail term by the Parramatta Court for lodging fraudulent income tax returns on behalf of clients and stealing refunds.
The court found that Bradshaw, in his role as a registered agent from 2011 to 2015, lodged a number of income tax agents in which he under reported his clients’ income in order to gain larger refunds. Following this, he was said to have pocketed the inflated difference.
His activities resulted in a loss to the Commonwealth of over $80,000 and a loss to eight individual taxpayers of over $10,000.
Bradshaw was ordered by the court to pay full repatriations to the Commonwealth.
Australian Taxation Office acting assistant commissioner David Mendoza, said: “Taxpayers should be able to trust their registered tax professional to do the right thing when handling their tax affairs. Lodging fraudulent tax returns on behalf of clients and then stealing the tax refunds is not only a clear breach of trust, but also serious fraud.”
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