The Bureau of Internal Revenue on Thursday filed before the Department of Justice a P445.7-million tax evasion case against an importer based in Bulacan.
BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said in a press conference that the agency charged Alexander Evangelista Legarda with “willful attempt to evade or defeat tax” and “deliberate failure to file his Income Tax Return (ITR) for taxable years 2013 and 2014,” all in violation of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.
Legarda is the sole proprietor of Zone Lane Trading located in San Ildefonso, Bulacan and engaged in the business of importing motor vehicles, motor parts and other miscellaneous items.
Henares said that the case against Legarda was prompted by a series of Tax Watch ads published in broadsheets by the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Customs to highlight questionable practices of some importers.
Customs certified that the total importations made by Zone Lane reached P323.35 million in 2013 and P485.80 million in 2014.
Probers found that the respondent had regularly made importations amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos without declaring any income or source of income from 2013 to 2014.
The BIR established that the underdeclared income of Legarda was P323.35 million in 2013 and P485.80 million in 2014.
Henares said that as a result of his acts and omissions, Legarda was assessed an estimated total income tax liability in the sum of P445.70 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests, such as P190.51 million in 2013 and P255.19 million in 2014.