Acuity Financial Solutions pleads guilty to tax fraud charges after years of missing documentation costs taxpayers nearly $40,000

A Bentleigh financial planning company has been busted for not filing tax documents, costing taxpayers almost $40,000, after the sole director became “overwhelmed”.

A financial planning company has been taken to court by the ATO after the director failed to lodge years worth of GST statements.

The director of a financial planning company owes the ATO $40,000 after “put his head in the sand” over outstanding GST documents.

The ATO took Acuity Financial Solutions to Moorabbin Magistrates’ Court on November 6 over years of unpaid GST statements, totalling a loss of $39,800 to taxpayers.

Acuity Financial Solutions’ sole director Graeme Baker pleaded guilty on behalf of the company to 15 charges on Wednesday after not lodging a GST return for the company since 2015.

The court heard Baker, of Bentleigh, had been contacted by the ATO on 11 occasions by phone, email and in the post, but had failed to reply or submit the correct forms for a cafe purchased by the company.

The court heard Baker entered “crisis mode” where he attempted to correct the issue and reported the fraudulent activity to the police.

Victoria Police never followed up on the report and Baker had still yet to lodge the GST statements with the ATO.

The court heard Baker lost his financial services licence and was subsequently forced to close the company, and had to sell his family home due to the debt.

Baker, who has been a financial adviser since the 1990s, had become “overwhelmed” when he’d discovered the error, the court was told, and conceded that he “should have just filed the documents”.

Magistrate Robert Stary said because of his experience in the industry, Baker was “not an ordinary tax payer”.

The court heard Baker had to shut down the financial planning company after losing his licence. Picture: Wayne Taylor.

“You had your head in the sand, but you have a higher culpability because of your professional duties,” Mr Stary said.

“The ATO has attempted to contact you on multiple occasions, and you’ve failed to take action.”

The court heard Baker had started sorting through the documents and planned to pay the ATO back in full by April next year.

The ATO prosecutor argued for a conviction and fine sentence, but Mr Stary said he “didn’t want to rush the decision”.

“This matter is very complex, I want to go through all the details in depth,” he said.

The case was adjourned for sentencing on January 7.