Prince Rupert resident and former business owner, Daphne Ling, pled guilty to tax in a BC Court late last month after being accused of using their business as a front.
While Ling and her husband Daniel operated a company called Ling's Trading which on paper was a health food business – it was all just on paper.
Ling's Trading was telling the government that it was losing money, a total of $160,856 from 2005 to 2007.
The Lings may not have been selling much health food, but they were selling a lot of lottery tickets. A forensic audit by the Canada Revenue Agency showed that the Lings had not reported $182,802 of income made from being agents of the BC Lottery Corporation.
Daphne Ling was sentenced to an 18 month conditional sentence with 30 hours of community service. She was also ordered pay $52,801 worth of fines, which amounts to 75 per cent of amount of income taxes sheevaded.
Fines for evading income taxes after conviction can be as high as 200 per cent of the amount evaded.