Two tradies jailed for ‘calculated’ tax evasion

Two tradesmen have been jailed for each evading nearly $1 million in tax, Inland Revenue says.

The tax department said Hamilton plasterer Paul Andrew Mills was sentenced on February 9 to two years and one month in prison.

Auckland builder Hamish Paul Aegerter received a sentence of two years and seven months on Friday.

The Inland Revenue Department took out radio and billboard advertisements late last year to warn tradespeople that cash jobs invariably left a trail and that it could uncover hidden payments.

Inland Revenue spokesman Andrew Stott said then that the advertisements were part of a plan to ‘‘address tax crime in the building sector’’.

Mills was sentenced for evading $996,107 in tax between 2009 and 2017 when he did not file any income tax or GST returns, Inland Revenue said.

The department’s legal services leader, Karen Whitiskie, said Mills charged his clients GST but never passed that on to Inland Revenue.

‘‘He deducted PAYE from his employees but never passed that on either. And he didn’t file an income tax return for nearly a decade.’’

Aegerter had ‘‘existed largely outside the tax system for 17 years’’ and was jailed for three representative charges of filing false GST and income tax returns, and failing to file returns, Inland Revenue said.

The department said a wider investigation into Aegerter’s affairs showed he had evaded a total of $879,340 in tax, which included failing to pass on $630,682 in GST that he had charged clients.

Inland Revenue said the tradesmen’s actions amounted to ‘‘deliberate and calculated abuse of the tax system’’.