SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--United People's (UP) party Member of Parliament (MP) Silvio Matser was sentenced by the Court on Wednesday to 24 months, 18 of which were suspended, on three years' probation and 240 hours of community service, for tax evasion. Matser's construction company Energizer NV was ordered to pay NAf. 4.5 million in back taxes.

Matser was not present to hear the Judge read out the sentence as he was not feeling well, his attorney Cor Merx said.

The 48-year-old MP and company director was convicted of tax evasion in having filed incorrect tax-return forms for the payment of wage taxes, incorrect contributions to workers' social insurance AOV, AWW and AWBZ premiums over the fiscal years 2006 up until and including 2010 and of failure to pay turnover tax for 2006.

The Court referred to Matser's behaviour as "highly unsocial" as he had "structurally" and "deliberately" submitted incorrect wage tax and social-premium figures for a number of years. Not only were workers' payments in wage taxes and social premiums not or incorrectly filed in the business administration, employees and building projects were also not mentioned to the Inspectorate of Taxes, the Court stated.

Matser was held and questioned on January 25, 2013, in connection with what was dubbed the first criminal tax investigation by St. Maarten authorities.

The Prosecutor's Office had requested a sentence of 24 months in jail, eight of which were to be suspended, with two years' probation and payment of a NAf. 4.5 million fine.

The criminal case against the parliamentarian was heard in December, during which Matser denied the charges. He admitted that his tax returns had been filed incorrectly, but blamed the person responsible for Energizer's business administration for "mistakes" made. However, the Court found it proven that the administrator had worked under Matser's orders.

Pleadings submitted by defence lawyers Cor Merx and Rik Bergman to have the Court to declare the Prosecutor's case against their client inadmissible failed. Pleadings claiming that Energizer NV could not be held accountable for payment of social premiums over foreign workers' premiums also failed.

The defence had said these workers had in fact been employed by a company registered in French St. Martin and Energizer had only put these workers on its payroll as the other company had no permission to operate in Dutch St. Maarten.

The Court also dismissed this element of the pleadings, as this had no impact on Matser's and his company's obligations to file taxes correctly.

Tax attorney Bergman also had stated that the backlog in taxes for the fiscal year 2006 no longer could be claimed, as former minister of finance Roland Tuitt had decided to write off back taxes owed for the fiscal years of 2006 and before.

The Judge, however, agreed with the Prosecutor that this policy, which was published in the National Gazette of May 24, 2013, did not apply to fraud cases.

The Court found large discrepancies between wage taxes paid by company workers and the amounts mentioned to the tax department. In 2006 alone, these figures amounted to NAf. 421,306.

From declarations of tax and premiums submitted by MGM Consultants NV it emerged that amounts were frequently and substantially lowered in 2007 as well. According to the, incomplete, collect payroll for 2007 total wages amounted to NAf. 4,828,626, whereas gross salaries included in the annual accounts were set at NAf. 6,057,090.

The Cupecoy project was not included in the 2008 collect payroll, but payment of fortnightly wages for this project were found in the company administration, from which it also emerged that amounts were lowered by 20 or 30 per cent.

Tax returns for 2009 were also not in conformity with the payroll, the judge said. In July, September and October of this year only figures for company administrative workers and management were provided and in November and December even less, it was stated.

Income from projects carried out at The Westin St. Maarten Dawn Beach Resort and Spa, Paradise Mall, Porto Cupecoy and works in connection with the harbour expansion were not included in the tax returns, even though Energizer had never requested or granted any tax holiday.

Witnesses also had testified to Energizer's faulty business administration. One witness said it was common knowledge in the construction world that wages for "casual labour" were not always administered properly. Another witness had told the Judge of Instruction that she had started working for Energizer in January 2009, and that its bookkeeping had been a mess.