BOXING champion Emmanuel Pacquiao is no longer the country’s top Filipino taxpayer after biscuit company and bank owner Jacinto Ng became the top taxpayer for the year 2014, the Bureau of Internal Revenue said Friday.
BIR data showed that Ng, owner of Republic Biscuit Corp. and Asia United Bank Corp., paid more than P280 million in taxes for 2014. Ng is the country’s 36th richest man with a net worth of $275 million, according to Forbes magazine.
Pacquaio, however, was not far behind with tax payments totaling P210.3 million in 2014. Pacquiao was the top taxpayer in 2014.
The chief executive of the country’s biggest chain of drugstores, Vivian-Que Azcona was the third top three taxpayer with P153.55 million. Azcona was the biggest individual taxpayer in 2012 before dropping to eighth in 2013.
Former logging tycoon and now Palawan Gov. Jose Alvarez was the fourth top tax payer after paying P73 million to the BIR in 2014. Alvarez is considered the richest governor and elected official in the country. As of 2013, he has a net worth of P4.2 billion.
Rebisco company’s heir Jacinto Ng Jr. was also in the list as the fifth highest individual taxpayer (P66.86 million) last year. Ng Jr. is the owner of Oakwood Premier Joy-Nostalg Center Manila.
Presidential sister and television host Kris Aquino was at the sixth spot with P54.53 income taxes paid in 2014. Aquino topped the list of BIR’s top taxpayers in 2011.
Aside from Aquino, other celebrities like Sharon Cuneta and John Lloyd Cruz made it to the top 25 list.
Also in the top 10 in the seventh place is property developer Ronaldo Soliman with P43.48 million taxes paid.
Coca-Cola Philippines president William Schultz was the top 8 with P51.32 million followed by San Miguel chief executive Ramon Ang at the ninth spot with P51.05 million taxes paid.
Rounding up the top 10 list is Lauro Baja III, son of former Ambassador to the United Nations with P50.45 million regular income taxes paid. The country’s richest man, Henry Sy Sr., was ranked 53rd in the list, with P25.67 million in taxes paid in 2014.
The country’s business tycoons were also on the list such as MVP Group of Companies top executive Manuel Pangilinan (P27.09 million), Ayala chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel De Ayala (P37.46 million) and Megaworld founder Andrew Tan (P29.77 million).
The BIR’s list of top 500 individual taxpayers for 2014 was based on regular income tax payments made as of November 10, 2015.