An Auckland couple has been sentenced for nine years of tax offending involving almost $555,000, with the husband jailed and the wife sentenced to home detention because of their children’s special needs.
According to a report by Stuff, Judge Alofivae sentenced Faalili Vaa to 26 months in prison, while his wife, Belinda Heilupe Vaa, received 12 months’ home detention.
The couple faced representative charges for evading income tax and GST, as well as dishonestly using a document to obtain income tax advantages and a Small Business Cashflow Scheme loan.
The offending occurred between 2015 and 2024 and was linked to their kitchen installation business. The court heard both benefited from the business profits and knew that the GST and income tax returns submitted contained inaccurate information, including understated sales and overstated expenses, Stuff has reported.
After Inland Revenue began reviewing their tax affairs in 2018, the couple deliberately stopped filing GST and income tax returns for their kitchen installation work, the court heard.
The total amount involved in the income tax, GST and Small Business Cashflow Scheme offending was $554,998.68 over nine years, as reported by Stuff.
Judge Alofivae found the couple equally culpable and set a starting point of 44 months’ imprisonment for each. Their guilty pleas, remorse and difficult personal circumstances, including the needs of their autistic children, resulted in reductions to the sentences.
Belinda Vaa’s sentence was then reduced to 24 months and converted to 12 months’ home detention, as reported by Stuff.
The judge said the children were their mother’s “saving grace”, and that the decision to impose home detention was made strictly on humanitarian grounds.
She said the effect of having both parents in prison would be too great for their high-needs children, as reported by Stuff.
Judge Alofivae took a more serious view of Faalili Vaa’s circumstances, including the fact that he continued working as a self-employed worker despite the offending.
She described the nine years of offending as “absolutely unacceptable” and considered that it appeared he had caused his wife to become involved, Stuff has reported.
The judge also rejected ignorance as a defence and raised concerns about the pre-sentence report, which indicated Vaa did not appear to comprehend the full gravity of the offending.
Faalili Vaa will now serve his sentence in prison, while Belinda Vaa will serve hers at home, as reported by Stuff.
The case highlights the balance courts must consider at sentencing, weighing the seriousness and duration of financial offending against the humanitarian impact imprisonment may have on dependent children.
The offending involved both unpaid tax obligations and the misuse of a government-backed small-business loan, with the total financial impact reaching $554,998.68, as reported by Stuff.
While the couple’s guilty pleas and personal circumstances reduced their sentences, the judge ultimately found the offending serious enough to warrant imprisonment for Faalili Vaa.