Two tradesmen have been handed jail terms of more than two years each after years of avoiding paying tax.
Auckland builder Hamish Paul Aegerter was last Friday jailed for two years and seven months after existing "largely outside the tax system for 17 years", Inland Revenue says.
When he did file income tax returns, he grossly under-reported his income - for one six-year period he returned income totalling $230,717, but bank records showed he had received $2.5 million.
Investigators said Aegerter had evaded a total of $879,340 in tax, including failing to pass on $630,682 in GST he'd charged his clients. He had banked more than $7m in the period.
Earlier in the month, Hamilton plasterer Paul Andrew Mills was jailed for two years and one month.
Mills hadn't file any income tax or GST returns for nine years. In total, he was liable for nearly $1m in GST, income tax and PAYE on undeclared earnings of nearly $3m.
"This was a deliberate and calculated abuse of the tax system by these tradesmen," Inland Revenue legal services leader Karen Whitiskie said.
"The consequences of their actions were that they deprived other New Zealanders to the tune of just under $2m in tax revenue.
"It is really disappointing these tradesmen thought this behaviour was acceptable."
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