A Christchurch builder has been sentenced to seven months home detention for failing to declare more than $260,000 in tax.

Gary Terence Moss evaded Inland Revenue for more than a year, fleeing to Australia at one point after being notified of an audit investigation.

Moss appeared in the Christchurch District Court last week where he was also ordered to pay $20,000 in reparations.

Moss arrived in New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 2014 and started working as a builder before becoming self-employed in 2016.

But Inland Revenue said Moss had not declared any salary or wage income since 2016.

He also failed to file tax returns from 2019 until 2022 and in 2023 filed a false income tax return for that year.

In May 2023, Inland Revenue notified Moss of an audit investigation after obtaining bank account statements for accounts linked to him showing he had been receiving undeclared income.

On the same day, Moss contacted an international relocation company to obtain a quote for moving household goods to Australia.

The court heard that after receiving a call from Inland Revenue where Moss said he would file the outstanding returns, the builder paid nearly $1700 to a travel agency and an airline, requested an early release from his fixed-term tenancy, and filed a false 2023 income tax return.

Moss departed for Melbourne in July 2023 but failed to respond to numerous attempts by Inland Revenue to contact him.

Between May and July 2024, Moss accessed his myIR several times from an IP address in Perth, but did not open any of the web messages send by Inland Revenue.

Moss returned to New Zealand in September 2024 and accessed his myIR account from an IP address in Dunedin but again failed to read any web messages.

Inland Revenue filed charges that same month. Moss’ income tax shortfall at the time was calculated to be $267,368.09.

In February this year, Moss engaged a tax agent who filed amended income tax returns for the 2019 to 2023 years.

However, these returns were not accepted by Inland Revenue as they failed to include received income into one of Moss’ other bank accounts.

Moss was sentenced on one representative charge and one single charge of evading or attempting to evade the assessment or payment of income tax.