Ex-military comptroller Ligot, wife to be slapped with tax evasion case–DoJ

MANILA. Philippines—The Department of Justice (DoJ) approved on Thursday the filing of a tax evasion case with the Court of Tax Appeals against former military comptroller Jacinto Ligot, and his wife Erlinda Ligot.

The Ligots are facing one count of violation of Article 255 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), for failing to pay the right taxes, and three counts of violation of  Article 254 for not paying taxes from 2002 to 2004.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) alleged that the couple defrauded the government of P428,077,547.54.

The Ligots, for their part, accused the BIR of not conduct any real investigation and audit, and merely relied on the facts unearthed at a series of much-publicized hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee

The couple said the issuance of a formal assessment (FAN) is not a mere formality, since real tax liability is determined through such assessment.

But the DoJ countered that the FAN is not a requisite to the filing of a tax evasion case.

“Section 222 of the NIRC provides that in case of false or fraudulent return with intent to evade tax or  of failure to file a return, a tax may be assessed or a proceeding in court for the collection of such tax may be filed without assessmen, ” the DoJ said.

The Doj said it was clear that the Ligots deliberately evaded paying their taxes on income derived from sources outside their employment for the years 2001 to 2004.

“The respondents professed themselves as mere compensation earner and housewife, respectively,” the DoJ said. “ All that is necessary is the verification of the ITR to determine the attempt to evade payment of taxes, and all other pieces of evidence i.e. the AMLC Report merely confirm the existence of tax liability.”

The BIR said Ligots incurred a total tax deficiency for 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004 of P43.9 million; P102.491-million, P153.198 million and P128.453 million, respectively.

Ligot has been subjected to various investigations after former military Budget officer George Rabusa accused him of involvement in a military fund scam.

Ligot is the second ranking military officer slapped with a case for tax evasion. The first was another military comptroller, Gen. Carlos F. Garcia.