Couple used children to evade tax

An Auckland husband and wife who repeatedly registered their teenage children as directors and sole shareholder of companies to avoid tax have been sentenced to prison and home detention.

A Papakura District Court judge said Tamanini Muaiava and his wife Uputaua Muaiava used their children like puppets as they dodged an estimated $431,644 in tax. The pair operated businesses supplying labourers to farms in South Auckland.

Inland Revenue spokesman Tony Morris said when they were confronted about one company’s failure to pay tax, that company would be wound up and a new company incorporated to continue their trading.

‘‘On at least three separate occasions they used one of their children as sole director and shareholder in a company.

The sentencing judge noted the children were ‘‘enlisted as mere puppets for the ongoing business’’. The couple’s three children were 18, 19 and 19, according to the court judgment.

The total tax evaded by the

Muaiavas

$431,644.66.

The husband and wife were sentenced this week on 65 charges, all of which related to evading or attempting to evade goods and services tax, and PAYE (taxes paid directly from wages or salaries).

Tamanini Muaiava was sentenced to 21 months’ imprisonment and Uputaua Muaiava received nine months’ home detention.

Morris said Tamanini had previous tax convictions and someone who persistently evaded their tax obligations deserved to be held to account. was estimated at

‘‘The judge noted that English is a second language for Mr Muaiava but rejected any claim of misunderstanding about his tax obligations,’’ Morris said.

‘‘He said while Muaiava’s ‘cultural’ obligation to ensure harvesters were paid may provide the context of his offending, it doesn’t excuse it.’’

The Muaiava’s various companies kept few records and traded mostly in cash, resulting in Inland Revenue having to reconstruct income from invoice records.

Morris described the offending as ‘‘straight theft from the community and a gross abuse of trust’’ and said the district court judge had found their offending was premeditated, repetitive and deliberate.

Inland Revenue described the offending as ‘‘straight theft from the community and a gross abuse of trust’’.