AN EYE doctor and owners of a real estate firm have been added to the roster of alleged tax evaders with complaints filed against them at the Department of Justice.
The agency said in a statement Mr. Larrazabal is the husband of singer/actress Donna Cruz.
According to the BIR, information it obtained from records with the Philippine Health Insurance Corp., in particular the certificate of creditable tax withheld at source and professional fees payments notices, showed that Mr. Larrazabal earned ₱10.87 million in 2009, ₱8.88 million in 2010, and ₱9.38 million in 2011, or a total of ₱29.13 million.
However, the BIR said Mr. Larrazabal’s ITRs and percentage tax returns (PTR) showed he only declared an income of ₱1.48 million in 2009, ₱1.49 million in 2010, and ₱1.75 million in 2011, "underdeclaring his taxable income by ₱9.39 million or 635% in 2009, ₱7.39 million or 493% in 2010, and ₱7.63 million or 437% in 2011."
Further, the BIR said Mr. Larrazabal failed to register as a VAT taxpayer when his income of ₱3.18 million for the first quarter of 2009 exceeded ₱1.5 million, the minimum amount whereby a person should pay VAT.
"Rather, he only filed PTRs for the years 2009, 2010 and 2011 and made it appear in said returns that he only earned ₱300,000 for the 1st quarter of 2009 and ₱1.48 million for the year 2009 which would not make him liable for VAT," read the BIR statement.
Mr. Larrazabal has been assessed a tax liability of ₱21.14 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests, it added.
COLLUSION
Meanwhile, a separate complaint has been filed against Taguig City-based Philmay Property, Inc. (PPI) as well as its executives Ong Seet-Joon, Rafael Morales, Jonathan P. Ong, Benjamin Q. Lira and Michelle F. Reyes for "willful attempt to evade or defeat income tax, value-added tax, documentary stamp tax (DST) and expanded withholding tax (EWT).
Also charged were revenue officers Vicente Velario, Joseph Macuha and Noradel Mendoza who were authorized to examine PPI’s records from July 1, 2008 to June 30, 2009.
A reinvestigation showed that company officials failed to file the DST return and supply correct and accurate information on the company’s ITR and VAT return for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2009.
On a tip of "a confidential informant," the revenue agency claimed PPI "evaded the payment of the correct amount of taxes in the sum of ₱169.83 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests" after it connived with three revenue officers on the company’s deficiency taxes.
"An agreement form was completed on July 9, 2010 with the revenue officers saying that an audit examination was conducted and that the deficiency tax amounted to only ₱499,206.53," the BIR said.
"Without the cooperation of said revenue officers through the issuance of a tax assessment amounting to only ₱499,206.53 PPI could not have avoided the payment of its correct tax liabilities for the fiscal year ending 30 June 2009 which is ₱169.83 million," it added.
The BIR further noted that PPI claimed a deductible interest expense of ₱47.6 million for a loan from Maybank Philippines, Inc. (MPI).
A probe by BIR agents found out that the loan transaction was a "related transaction" since MPI is 99.99% owned by Malayan Banking Berhad (MBB) which also owns PPI by at least 59.99%.
"As such, the interest expense should not be claimed as deductible expense," read the BIR statement.
The agency also found out that PPI allegedly claimed a deductible expense worth ₱3.21 million representing salaries and wages without withholding any tax due and ₱50.2 million as operating expenses without supporting documents.
"Said schemes led to an underdeclaration of PPI’s taxable income by as much as 69.56% and the non-payment of income tax in the aggregate amount of ₱37.81 million," the BIR said.
Further, PPI allegedly failed to report ₱95.07 million of its real estate sales for 2009 which resulted in the non-payment of VAT worth ₱73.13 million, DST worth ₱15.57 million, and EWT worth ₱43.32 million. -- DEDS
