A Tauranga man who worked for a tax agent has been sentenced to six months home detention and 150 hours' community work for tax evasion.

John Richard Cox appeared in Tauranga District Court today where he was sentenced on eight charges of tax evasion after being found guilty at an earlier appearance.

Tauranga man John Richard Cox was sentenced to six months home detention and 150 hours' community work.

Cox was working for a tax agent between July 2008 and September 2009 when he falsified his clients' spreadsheets by deleting their income details and then filing false GST returns on behalf of their behalf without their knowledge.

As a result of these actions Inland Revenue found he was able to understate his clients' income by a total of $326,606.08.

Inland Revenue investigations and advice group manager Patrick Goggin says tax agents and advisors have a duty to ensure their clients' tax affairs are correctly reported to Inland Revenue.

'Mr Cox not only breached his clients' trust by acting illegally but also that of Inland Revenue which trusted him to act with honesty and uphold the integrity of the tax system.

In other GST returns, Cox added expenditure that had already been claimed in an earlier return over claiming expenditure by $129,360.

'When Inland Revenue spoke to Mr Cox, he admitted he deliberately took steps to reduce his client's GST liability and filed the various GST returns knowing that they were not paying the correct amount of tax.

'He was the person responsible for the completion and filing of those GST returns for his clients, and as a tax advisor, he knew the rules.”

Patrick says the New Zealand tax system relies on honesty of individuals and their business entities.

'When someone fails to pay their fair share and cheats the system, they are taking money from services such as schools, healthcare and other essential government services.”