Company Fined Total Of £lOOO For Tax Evasion

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28894, 14 May 1959, Page 20

Company Fined Total Of £lOOO For Tax Evasion

Fines totalling £lOOO were imposed on lan R. Little, Ltd., photographic importers, which pleaded guilty in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday to 10 charges of wilfully furnishing false income tax returns between 1949 and 1958. Mr A. P. Blair, S.M., was on the Bench.

The company was fined £lOO on each charge. According to the prosecution the charges involved a total income tax deficit of £4884 and £B2B social security. Mr C. M. Roper who appeared for the Department of Inland Revenue said the money had since been paid to the department. The evasions had been estimated on a sum of £11,050 which was only ♦a fraction of the company’s profits in the last 10 years. He considered it was a bad- case of calculated evasion. He added that in fairness to the company, it was not as bad as it might appear because of the total profits. The company’s income had been in every way substantial. It was one of the five main photographic importers in the country, and one of its most outstanding features was the rapid increase in income. In 1950 the total income was £B6OO and in the last three years it had exceeded £50,000, said Mr Roper.

Mr P. G. S. Penlington, who appeared for the company, said lan Little, the managing director, took full responsibility for the charges, and did not suggest his staff were responsible. Mr Penlington said technically the charges arose from the company’s income being understated. Little’s personal and living costs might have been an over estimate

which would account tor part of the deficit. Little did not gamble or indulge in high living. He had suffered poor health and had devoted his energies to the company. The company’s main business was importing cameras and photographic equipment. Import restrictions imposed by the present Government had made a bleak future. Sales this year were down 52 per cent, compared with last year, and were expected to drop more. “This case is not as serious as others that have come before the Court when you compare the undeclared amount with the overall income. The company has been a substantial taxpayer and will no doubt continue to be so for many years to come,” said Mr Penlington. The Magistrate said the company admitted making false returns. In the last few years it had received a substantial income. “I am not sympathetic to pleas of hardship the company will have to face. I agree that it is a bad case,” he said.