Tax man granted bail for tax fraud

AN acting assistant commissioner of the Inland Revenue Division (IRD) has been granted bail on 20 charges relating to tax fraud.

Finbar Boland appeared before Master Margaret Sookraj-Goswami on July 15.

He was granted $200,000 bail.

Boland, 59, of Finland Street, St James, was charged following investigations by Adesh Ramdeo, an investigator with the Criminal Tax Investigation Unit of the IRD.

Boland was represented by Ravi Rajcoomar, SC, and John Heath SC. The IRD was represented by Evans Welch, legal consultant and tax and fraud prosecutor.

Boland was charged with five counts of making false and misleading statements in his personal tax returns, falsely claiming tax refunds he was not entitled to and unlawfully getting refund cheques as a result.

The particulars of those counts allege that from 2014 to 2018, Boland falsely declared in his income tax return he was entitled to a personal tax allowance for first-time ownership in the sum of $18,000 and falsely claiming a tax refund of $4,500 for which he received a cheque he was not lawfully entitled. He was also charged with five counts of making false statements in tax returns, claiming he received zero income from sources other than his salary and undeclaring considerable amounts of income received in each year from 2014 to 2018.

These charges allege Boland made a false and misleading statement in the income tax return filed with the Board of Inland Revenue for 2014 when he declared he received no income other than his salary, although he allegedly received $ 349,605 from other sources, which he did not declare. The other counts allege the same for 2015 in the sum of $630,026.05; $393697.32 in 2016; $671,596.57 in 2017 and $915,141.84 in 2018.

Five additional charges included cheating the public revenue of tax payable by non-declaration of additional sources of income in his return. These charges allege Boland claimed a tax-deductible allowance he was not entitled to and failing to declare additional income in his 2014 to 2018 individual income tax returns filed with the BIR, thereby depriving the State of tax revenue in the sum of 2014 - $91,901.50 in tax payable; 2015 - $162,006.01; 2016 - $104,674.33; 2017 - $174,149.14 and 2018 - $236,053.75.

He was also charged with five counts of money laundering, namely depositing in his personal bank accounts inland revenue refund cheques obtained by false representations in his tax return.

These charges allege Boland knowingly converted criminal property by depositing income tax refund cheques -$4,500 for 2014 and 2025; $6,250 for 2016; $7,250 for 2017 and $6,249 for 2018 - into personal bank accounts at various banks.

Boland was arrested on July 8 at the IRD, Government Campus, Ajax Street, Port of Spain, by acting Cpl Charles and PC Clovi.