MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has filed tax evasion charges before the Department of Justice against an Iloilo businessman and a gold trader from Cebu.
Facing complaints for violation of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) are Avelino R. Aw-Yong and gold trader Junrie Daitol Tenorio.
Aw-Yong is facing two counts of wilful attempt to evade or defeat payment of income tax, and two counts of wilful failure to supply correct and accurate information in his Income Tax Returns for taxable years 2009 and 2010, in violation of Section 254 and Section 255 of the NIRC.
Tenorio, meanwhile is slapped with five counts of wilful attempt to evade or defeat tax, 15 counts of wilful failure to file Quarterly Income Tax Returns (ITRs), and five counts of wilful failure to file Annual ITRs for taxable years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 NIRC.
Investigation showed that Aw-Yong, owner of Iloilo Izeem Commercial, received income payments amounting to P20.33 million for taxable year 2009 and P23.43 million for taxable year 2010. The said amounts were summed up from information gathered from various government agencies, offices, schools, universities, and other private institutions which had sales transactions with AW-YONG.
But verification by the BIR showed that he only declared sales amounting to P5.87 million and P6.39 million for taxable years 2009 and 2010, respectively.
Under Section 248 (B) of the Tax Code, a substantial underdeclaration of more than 30 percent constitutes prima facie evidence of fraud.
He was assessed with a total deficiency income tax worth P18.12 million, inclusive of surcharges and interest for the two year period.
Meanwhile, Tenorio was slapped with a complaint after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) sent to the BIR a list of individuals who had gold transactions with the BSP which included the name of Tenorio indicated that he sold gold to BSP amounting to P3.95 billion during the five year period in question.
Despite receiving taxable income from his gold transactions with the BSP, however, Tenorio failed to file his Annual ITRs for taxable years 2005 to 2009. Not only did he fail to file the required tax returns, he also did not pay his income taxes due on the said taxable years.
Tenorio was assessed with deficient income tax for taxable years 2005 to 2009 in the estimated aggregate amount of P2.67 billion, inclusive of surcharges and interests.