spot_img
29 C
Philippines
Thursday, March 28, 2024

Salceda to BIR: Observe process to avoid litigation

- Advertisement -

Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Friday reminded the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) “to always ensure due process in favor of the taxpayer” so that tax cases would not be dismissed in the courts of law.

Salceda issued the statement following a Court of Tax Appeals’ (CTA) decision on a tax deficiency case against a condominium corporation that effectively erased P50 million in alleged tax deficiencies for failure of the BIR to “personally inform” representatives of the firm.

“Not following due process to the very extreme leads tax cases open to litigation. When tax dues are litigated, we don’t get to collect immediately. The government already loses, even when it wins the case in the end,” he said.

The CTA decision was in connection with a 2008 deficiency case against a Quezon City-based condominium firm.

The CTA en banc sustained the resolution of its Second Division that the IBM Plaza Condominium Association Inc. of Bagumbayan in Quezon City was not liable to pay the P50-million tax as the bureau did not send notice of informal conference (NIC) to the firm.

- Advertisement -

The court said the notice was part of due process required by Revenue Regulations 22 44 in relation to Section 228 of the Tax Code.

“So I strongly remind the officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to make sure every process is according to law, regulations and standards of due process. Nothing should be left to chance,” Salceda said.

He said he wanted the BIR to “undertake an effort of codifying its own revenue regulations” so that “old or obscure RRs are not set aside, only to be invoked later by an erring taxpayer.”

“It will be good for both the government and the taxpayers if we were following just one codified set of rules,” he added.

Efforts to simplify the payment of taxes all align with the goals of the Ease of Paying Taxes Act authored by Salceda, and approved on third and final reading by the House.

“I think the Senate will take it up by November. We could have it by end of the year, at least in bicam if not yet as enacted law,” he said.

- Advertisement -

LATEST NEWS

Popular Articles