Accountant fined for tax dodge

A Palmerston North accountant has been fined $5000 after she failed to file tax returns for six years.

Lyn Carey, 49, has been censured and fined by the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants after she admitted breaching the institute's code of ethics.

Carey escaped suspension or being kicked out of the institute because the disciplinary tribunal decided this would be out of proportion to the gravity of her offending.

The institute ruled that Carey behaved "in a manner inconsistent with the good reputation of the profession".

In its judgment, the institute said that while no client had complained about her accounting practices, "failure to file one's own tax returns as a practitioner tends to bring the institute into disrepute".

Earlier this year, in the Porirua District Court, Carey was convicted and discharged on six charges of knowingly not providing personal income tax returns between March 2003 and March 2008.

However, the company she co-owns with her parents Bryan and Doreen Carey, Bundameeny Properties, was fined $5000 at the Porirua District Court for knowingly not providing GST returns over the same five years, and also six counts of knowingly not providing income tax returns between April 2004 and April 2009.

Carey is a former chairwoman of the Feilding High School board of trustees and former board member of economic development agency Vision Manawatu.

Carey, a member of the accounting institute for 25 years, could not be reached for comment.

- © Fairfax NZ News