Friday, 27 August 2010 00:00
[ manilatimes.net ]
BY KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ REPORTER
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is pursuing a property flipper for failing to declare the correct taxes due on his transactions.
In a press conference, Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said the bureau filed criminal charges before the
Department of Justice against Macario Lim Gaw Jr. for mis-declaring his income and mis-classifying his business transactions to substantially cut his tax liabilities.
Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Cesar Purisima told reporters that “this is the biggest ever case filed under the RATE program,” referring to the Run After Tax Evaders Program.
Jacinto-Henares said BIR investigation that showed Gaw under-declared his income in 2007 and 2008.
The BIR chief said Gaw purchased 10 lots in 2007 for a combined cost of P4.11 billion, and sold it twice its price for P8.4 billion in eight months, thus earning a profit of more than P4 billion.
“He declared this as capital assets when it should be declared as ordinary assets because he bought land to sell as may be evidenced by a short holding period. There are also other evidence that show he deliberately tried to make it appear like it’s a capital gains tax which will be a part of the case,” Jacinto-Henares said.
She said Gaw paid only a six percent capital gains tax amounting to P9.11 million and P418 million in 2007 and 2008, respectively.
Jacinto-Henares alleged that Gaw evaded payment of the 32 percent income tax and the 12 percent value-added tax on the sale of land classified as ordinary assets.
The BIR chief said Gaw owes the govenrment P5.5 billion in unpaid taxes.
“If I may add, another thing that made this a really obvious attempt to evade taxes is the use of multiple tax identification numbers so it will be more difficult for the bureau to discover this scheme,” Purisima told reporters.
The DOF chief said the subject properties are located in the Marina area and were sold to a subsidiary of Azure Corp., which is one of the entities involved in the projects of state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.
The BIR said Gaw owns Mega Packing Corp., Macro Liquid Petroleum Gas Co. Inc. and MGE Taxi Transit Corp.
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