Dunedin doctor Asheer Singh was the subject of one of a dwindling handful of prosecutions by the IRD, figures show.
Statistics, released to the Otago Daily Times under the Official Information Act, reveal only five people were convicted of tax fraud in the South Island in the last financial year, and just 31 nationally.
The numbers have steadily declined over the last five years; last year’s figure was nearly half of 2020’s 57 convictions.
While the number of IRD audits in the Southern region has dropped since 2020, there was something of a spike last year in which 42 investigations uncovered $2,504,196 of "undeclared or inaccurately reported transactions".
An IRD spokeswoman said less resource had been applied to audits in recent years because of a focus on the Covid-19 "response and recovery".
"From 2024 we are significantly increasing our audit activity," she said.
Quantity of audits, however, was only one measure and the spokeswoman said there was an increasing focus on investigations becoming more targeted.
"Regarding prosecutions, they are always the last recourse for us, but for those taxpayers who seem simply unwilling to engage with us without the threat of legal action, we have begun moving more quickly to prosecution," she said.
There are currently 78 tax-fraud cases before the courts.
Tax fraud convictions
South Island
2020 12
2021 10
2022 2
2023 5
2024 5
North Island
2020 45
2021 40
2022 36
2023 29
2024 26
Tax fraud cases
| 2020 | |||
| Audits | Value | ||
| Otago/Southland/Chathams | 100 | $2,897,821 | |
| Nationwide | 2499 | $160,694,813 | |
| 2021 | |||
| Otago/Southland/Chathams | 89 | $1,236,072 | |
| Nationwide | 2507 | $74,142,867 | |
| 2022 | |||
| Otago/Southland/Chathams | 25 | $1,575,188 | |
| Nationwide | 696 | $85,587,340 | |
| 2023 | |||
| Otago/Southland/Chathams | 26 | $1,042,397 | |
| Nationwide | 786 | $54,848,224 | |
| 2024 | |||
| Otago/Southland/Chathams | 42 | $2,504,196 | |
| Nationwide | 897 | $62,584,369 |
