Feeling Guilty About Forged Car Lease Documents – How Can My Friend Make Things Right?

Dear Seniors,

On April 13, one of my friends was promoted, and her organization offered her a car lease. They requested her to submit the RC and insurance copies of a car in the name of any family member to avail of the tax benefits. The organization mentioned that they would issue a cheque only in favor of the registered owner of the car. As my friend is single and owns the only car in her family, her colleague suggested and convinced her to forge the RC documents (as they had done the same). With the help of an expert, she altered both copies and signed the contract papers with her organization to proceed with the car lease.

However, she has been feeling very uneasy about this situation since then. Consequently, she has now decided to terminate the car lease agreement herself. She is concerned about the car lease for the past eight months and wishes to rectify everything before the fiscal year ends. She informed me that she plans to declare the amount reimbursed to her as additional income and pay the necessary taxes, but I am unsure about the correct course of action.

Seniors, please provide your guidance as she is in a state of panic.

Regards,
Shasa

She is quite right with her terms. Whatever she has done is fraud. Now she is not in that agreement. The point is paper documentation fraud and tax rebate fraud. So if somebody finds this, then definitely she will get imprisonment and also she will have to pay all the amount. So she is absolutely right. She can show it as additional income and have to pay all the amount which she got in rebate. But tell her she has to pay this before she is found guilty; otherwise, the consequences will be bad. The rest will be paper documentation fraud, and it will be settled somewhere in monetary terms.

In the documents submitted, who has been shown as the owner of the vehicle? Were the cheques made out in the name of that person? She should immediately inform the company that this arrangement no longer exists, and no further cheques should be made in the name of that person.

Please revert back if you need further clarification while furnishing additional information related to the queries.

Warm regards.

Thank you for the valuable suggestions. She had shown her father as the owner of the vehicle, and checks were made in his name, which were deposited in their joint account. She had requested her company to discontinue the lease agreement, and the agreement has already been terminated.

Now, is there any possible way to remove the lease document from records or to protect her from all sorts of legal charges/fraud prosecutions? Can she ask her company to cancel the agreement from the beginning, surrender the entire reimbursed amount, and request her company to deduct the taxes and credit the balance amount in her account? If yes, then how should she approach it, with what justifications and reasons?

We are clueless about what a silly mistake she has made. Please advise.

Regards,
Shasa

Thank you for your update. It's good that the agreement has been terminated, and furthermore, she is even willing to refund the amount. I understand that what is important for her now is to get back the impugned documents. The situation is that these may be in the custody of the Finance & Accounts department as records for the amount paid. When the amount is refunded, there would be another set of entries and records.

Thus, even after depositing the amount, there is no guarantee that the documents shall be handed back. However, what can be done is to "deface" the documents and write "CANCELLED" in thick bold letters over every page. This is part of the general practice.

I have no idea about the size of her company or the practices of their accounts department. She can discuss the matter confidentially with her accounts department, if possible.

However, once the money is deposited back, she cannot be accused of personal gains.

Another Point:

If the money has been paid (through a cheque) in the name of her father, the "owner of the car"/lessee, the refund will not make any difference to her tax liability or gains.

Warm regards.

Tax Rebate Practices in the Salaried Class

In my knowledge and experience, 75% of the salaried class shows false papers and claims tax rebates. The IT department doesn't target the salaried class in depth as they are only contributing to the exchequer sincerely, except for some minor gains on tax savings. The IT department is fully aware of such practices but remains silent on many cases.

Regards,
Pon