The Department of Justice has dismissed the P38.57-million tax evasion case filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue against actor Richard Gutierrez and his production company.
In an eight-page resolution released on Wednesday, the DOJ junked for lack of probable cause the complaint for violation of National Internal Revenue Code against Gutierrez and his R Gutz Production Corp. in April 2017.
In another resolution, the DOJ also dismissed a separate complaint of BIR against the actor for falsification of document and perjury when he allegedly submitted fake income tax returns and value-added tax returns during preliminary investigation on the case. Rey E. Requejo
Investigating Assistant State Prosecutor Christine Perolino said there is no sufficient evidence to indict Gutierrez for the charges of the BIR, which claimed that the actor did not pay taxes in 2012.
The DOJ said the allegation of tax evasion was actually premature on the part of the BIR that filed the complaint without even completing its investigation on the tax liability of the respondents.
The investigating fiscal noted that the BIR filed the complaint in April 2017 and yet it sent the actor a “final notice” to pay the allegedly unpaid taxes in Sept. 2017.