Romeo Lumagui Jr. /PHOTO FROM BIR WEBSITE
MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will study the estate tax case of the family of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., the bureau’s commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. said on Thursday.
“Pagaaralan po natin yan at sisisguraduhin natin na lahat ng aksyon na gagawin natin diyan ay yung naayon lang sa batas,” Lumagui, whom Marcos named as the BIR chief in November, said in an ambush interview in Manila.
(We will study that and we will make sure that all the actions we do are in accordance with the law.)
It can be recalled that the estate tax case became a hot button issue hurled against Marcos Jr. by his opponents.
In 1997, the Supreme Court ruled that the family of late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. owed P23 billion in estate tax, but the amount already swelled to P203 billion due to non-payment and interest, according to retired Supreme Court Justice Antonio Carpio.
Marcos’ former spokesperson and executive secretary Vic Rodriguez, however, insisted that the case “ is still pending in court and the ownership of the properties in litigation has yet to be settled.
But the Presidential Commission on Good Government said the BIR “already executed its final assessment” on the involved properties as early as 1993 and that “as early as 1997, the judgment on the tax case had become final and executory.”
In March, former BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay confirmed that the taxman had sent a written demand to the Marcos family in December 2021 to pay their estate taxes liability.