The Bureau of Internal Revenue said it filed 347 complaints involving tax liabilities worth P24.02 billion in 2019.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said during a recent executive committee meeting of the Department of Finance that this is the first time that the bureau filed many complaints for tax evasion against various individuals and corporations before either the Department of Justice or the Court of Tax Appeals.
The BIR said in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that under its Run After Tax Evaders program, 309 cases for preliminary investigation were filed by the bureau before the DOJ last year for tax liabilities of various individuals and corporations estimated at P19.06 billion.
This marked an increase of 57 percent over the 197 cases filed by the BIR in 2018 involving some P15 billion worth of tax liabilities, Guballa said.
It said the bureau filed with the CTA 38 cases for tax liabilities worth P4.94 billion combined, or more than triple the 12 cases filed before the tax appeals court in 2018.