Retailing businesses, especially those with cash takings, are the targets of the Inland Revenue Department to trigger tax investigations. The reason is straight forward – cash could be hidden away from a business bank account.

In the past, before the nowadays extensive use of electronic payment devices, small to medium sized retailers tended to keep certain cash takings for:

– payments to suppliers who wanted cash settlements

– low pay or part-time employees who did not wish to submit annual tax returns

– simply to reduce tax liability

Lucrative businesses like medical and health practitioners, fruit and veg sellers, food market hawkers, minor repairs and maintenance service providers, low to medium class restaurants, etc. have higher likelihood to “reduce” their reported revenue and profits. However, these businesses are nowadays receiving electronic monies more than “cash”. Thus, it would be fairly difficult to hide cash takings away in making a tax return. Resultantly, many tax papers’ returns have suddenly shown exceptional rises in their revenue. This is a “welcoming” signal hoisted by a tax paper to the tax department to initiate a tax investigation.