Convicted tax cheat’s arrest pressed

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is pushing for the capture of Gloria V. Kintanar, whose conviction as the country’s first tax evader has been affirmed by the Supreme Court.

In a notice to the public, the BIR is requesting concerned citizens for information that would lead to Kintanar’s arrest.

The BIR had pursued the prosecution of Kintanar, for not paying P15 million in taxes on her income as a distributor of Forever Living Products.

Based on court documents provided by the BIR, the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) issued a writ of execution for Kintanar’s arrest as early as last July 12.

The writ was issued when the BIR filed a motion for its issuance after Kintanar went missing earlier in July.

According to the BIR, Kintanar should have started her sentence on June 26 when she was due to appear in court but didn’t, claiming hypertension and dizziness.

The execution of the sentence was then rescheduled for July 2, but Kintanar also did not appear but instead submitted another notarized medical certificate from a hospital in Silang, Cavite.

The BIR hailed Kintanar’s conviction as a landmark case, particularly because the high court upheld the CTA’s “willful blindness” doctrine, which requires taxpayers to be responsible for their tax returns and which cannot just put blame on their accountants for fraudulent tax returns that they sign and file with the BIR.

The BIR filed the criminal complaint against Kintanar at the Department of Justice in 2005 when the tax deficiency with interest and surcharge amounted to only P6.3 million.

The amount has ballooned to over P15 million because tax court’s order included a 20-percent delinquency interest per year.—Ronnel W. Domingo