Heirs of landed families, gold trader tax evaders, says BIR

Posted on November 10, 2011 10:37:14 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]

THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) has filed tax evasion cases against the heirs of two families involved in a land transfer deal and the government employees who aided them.

The BIR pressed charges at the Department of Justice yesterday against the heirs of the late Gavino Vinluan of Pangasinan and an heir of the late Oscar R. Ongsiako of Makati City for willfully evading taxes and failing to file tax returns.

The Vinluan heirs -- Pilar V. Gonzales, Purita V. Canto, Federico Vinluan, Ramon R. Vinluan, Salvador Vinluan, Conchita V. Calvo, Hernando Vinluan, Gavino C. Vinluan, Heremias Vinluan, Socorro V. Gabionza, Israel Vinluan and Estrella V. Santiago -- allegedly failed to file estate tax returns after the death of Mr. Vinluan in February 1949.

According to investigations, Gavino left behind 25 properties and landholdings but no estate taxes were paid upon his death.

The heirs also executed a Deed of Extrajudicial Partition among Heirs with Sale for two parcels of land in 2009, but no capital gains tax or documentary stamp tax returns were submitted.

Melvin C. Castro, the deputy registrar of deeds of Lingayen, Pangasinan was also included in the charge sheet. He allegedly signed the Vinluans’ deeds, even without the Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR) which is issued by the BIR to show that the required capital gains tax and documentary stamp tax returns have been filed and the liabilities have been paid.

The Vinluans have been assessed a tax deficiency of P7.40 million in capital gains tax and P1.86 million in documentary stamp tax for a total of P9.26 million.

Moreover, the BIR also filed charges against Juan Miguel V. Ongsiako for allegedly failing to pay estate and documentary stamp taxes after a P10-million, 870-square meter property along Roxas Boulevard was sold to him by his parents in October 2005.

The sale could have been a scheme of the family to transfer the assets from Oscar to Juan Miguel without paying estate taxes, the BIR said in a statement yesterday.

Juan Miguel’s total tax liability stands at P10.06 million, broken down into P3.65 million in estate tax, P5.11 million in capital gains tax and P1.3 million in documentary stamp tax, inclusive of surcharge and interest.

Robert M. Guillermo, the registrar of deeds of Pasay City, was likewise included in the Ongsiako case for allegedly allowing the transfer of ownership of the land without a certification from the BIR.

“The above master stroke of tax evasion could not have attained a level of sophistication without the aid of the Register of Deeds who willfully turned a blind eye and issued the new title without indicating the CAR serial number to decrease the probability of fraud detection,” BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said during the case filing yesterday.

Meanwhile, the bureau also ran after gold trader Virgilio I. Ocampo who sold P1.12 billion worth of refined gold to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas from 2005 to 2008, but failed to file quarterly and annual tax returns for his taxable income.

Mr. Ocampo’s tax liability is estimated to be P804.42 million for the four-year period.

The BIR has now filed 79 cases under its Run After Tax Evaders program during the Aquino administration. -- Diane Claire J. Jiao

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Businessman ordered arrested over P5.5-B tax evasion case

Posted on October 31, 2011 10:58:09 PM [ BusinessWorld Online ]

A BUSINESSMAN has been ordered arrested over tax evasion charges filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), with the warrant to be served by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

In a resolution dated Oct. 19 and released by the BIR yesterday, the first division of the Court of Tax Appeals has issued an arrest warrant against businessman Macario L. Gaw, Jr. with a P120,000 bail bond. The businessman has a total tax deficiency of P5.5 billion for the period 2007-2008.

“The court, after due deliberation, finds the existence of probable cause for the issuance of warrant of arrest against the accused in these consolidated criminal cases,” the resolution read.

In a telephone interview, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said that the arrest warrant will be sent by the court sheriff to the Department of Justice (DoJ), which will order the NBI to serve the order.

Justice Secretary Leila M. de Lima has assured that the warrant will be served, added the BIR chief.

“Yes, she has assured us of the implementation of the warrant. In fact, she was the one who ordered it,” Ms. Henares said, referring to Ms. de Lima.

For her part, Ms. de Lima, in a text message, said she has instructed Prosecutor General Claro A. Arellano to obtain a copy of the arrest warrant and hand it over to the NBI for implementation.

In August last year, the BIR filed tax evasion charges against Mr. Gaw for failing to pay the correct income taxes for 2007 and 2008. He also did not indicate correct information in income tax returns and failed to file value-added tax (VAT) returns for 2008.

The BIR said Mr. Gaw, president of Mega Packaging Corp. and Macro Liquefied Petroleum Gas Co., has tax deficiency broken down as P1.3-billion basic income tax, P1 billion as basic VAT and the rest in interest and surcharges.

The case stemmed from Mr. Gaw’s purchase of 10 parcels of land in 2007 and 2008 worth P4.12 billion that were later on sold for P8.42 billion. The lots were declared as capital assets with Mr. Gaw paying only 6% of the capital gains tax worth P9.11 million for 2007 and P418.75 million in 2008. If the lots were declared ordinary assets, these could have been subjected to 32% income tax and 12% VAT.

The BIR claimed that Mr. Gaw used multiple Tax Identification Numbers, making it harder to track the violations.

The DoJ has found probable cause and ordered the filing of charges against Mr. Gaw at the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) in March.

Last week, the CTA’s second division ordered the arrest of spouses Jacinto C. Ligot and Erlinda Yambao Ligot over tax evasion charges also filed by the BIR.

The retired general was former military comptroller and was named in a plunder case at the Office of the Ombudsman. A plea bargain between him and the Ombudsman has been approved by the Sandiganbayan but its implementation was withheld. -- Nathaniel R. Melican

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