IT worker is jailed over tax evasion

A man has been jailed for tax evasion in Northland.

An IT professional who has been declared bankrupt twice has been sent to jail for evading more than $700,000 in taxes.

Timothy Meredith, 46, was found guilty by a jury in the Whangarei District Court last month on one charge of evading assessment or payment of income tax, one of evading assessment or payment of GST, and eight charges of evading payment of tax.

He did not pay $336,000 in income tax and $147,000 in GST between April 2007 and November 2013.

Meredith appeared for sentencing on Friday.

Andrew Karl and Carol Karl were also found guilty of tax evasion and their sentencing has been adjourned to January 21.

Meredith's application to adjourn his sentencing was dismissed.

All three earned income under an unregistered Maori group called the Nga Uri o Tupoto before transferring money into other accounts.

Judge Keith de Ridder said Meredith played a central role in the scheme by supplying others with templates, application forms, trust documents and arranged payments from the incorporation's account to individual accounts.

A probation report said Meredith, who has a business degree, and specialises in IT, was naively drawn into the incorporation's affairs when he should have known the Maori group did not legally exist.

Judge de Ridder said Meredith believed he did not have to contribute to society in a physical sense but had no problems accessing services provided by the Government.

During the trial Meredith fell ill and his treatment was funded by the very tax dollars he refused to pay in taxes, Judge de Ridder said.

Earlier, Crown solicitor Mike Smith said jail was the most appropriate outcome as Meredith played a central role in promoting and maintaining the scheme. He said the amount of tax he avoided and the role he played were much more significant than the other co-offenders.

Meredith's actions, he said, were deliberate and, while he charged GST to others for the work he did, the tax was not passed on to the Inland Revenue Department.

Judge de Ridder sentenced him to three-and-a-half years in prison.

Meredith was first declared an undischarged bankrupt in April 2008 for failing to pay more than $700,000 in taxes. He was again declared an undischarged bankrupt on December 2, 2015.