J21 Imports owner fined $5.63m for tax evasion on 464 motor vehicles

The 464 motor vehicles were covered between June and November 2016.

The sole proprietor of J21 Imports found himself on the wrong side of the law as he was sentenced to a fine of around $5.63m by the State Courts.

Lin Junjiang was also sentenced to four weeks imprisonment for underpaying the Additional Registration Fee for some vehicles. Due to his failure to pay the fine, he would also serve an additional 40 months imprisonment in default. 

Amongst the cases, Lin pleaded guilty to include one amalgamated charge under the Customs Act and one charger under Section 11(9) of the Road Traffic Act. 

The investigation was led by Singapore Customs after the entity had failed to declare the value of optional features of the vehicles to the agency. 

“Investigations revealed that two invoices would be prepared for each imported motor vehicle transaction. The first invoice would state the partial value of the motor vehicle whilst the other invoice would indicate the vehicle’s balance value and falsely described it as 'liaison fee'. J21 had only declared the partial value in the first invoice in the submissions to Customs but failed to declare the 'liaison fee', despite knowing that this amount had to be declared to Customs,” explained the department. 

This omission would result in the short payment of duty and GST totaling around $703,600 and $295,510, respectively.

Sixty-seven of the 464 vehicles covered also resulted in the ARF shortfall of $567,594, which was to be paid to the Land Transport Authority.