SC admits 4th suit against BIR

Supreme Court building. RYAN LEAGOGO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court on Tuesday admitted a fourth suit filed against the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s controversial regulation that required self-employed professionals to register their appointment books and reveal their fees.

The high court consolidated the petition for certiorari and prohibition filed by the Association of Small Accounting Practitioners in the Philippines (ASAPP) with the similar cases field by doctors and lawyers groups, Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said in a press conference.

Te also revealed that the court en banc would now be hearing the cases filed against the BIR Revenue Regulation 4-2014.

He said the court did not issue a temporary restraining order (TRO), as sought by ASAPP. Instead, the respondents–Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares–were required to submit their comments within 10 days.

According to its website, ASAPP was registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the BIR in 2011. Its principal office is found at JSP Mango Plaza, General Maxilom Avenue corner General Echavez Street, Cebu City.

Last April, the tribunal’s Third Division, in which the first case—filed by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines—was originally filed, issued a TRO against the BIR’s enforcement of the new regulation. The Philippine College of Physicians and the Philippine Medical Association later filed petitions in intervention that the high court also admitted.

Lawyers and doctors had criticized the BIR regulation for requiring self-employed professionals to submit affidavits indicating their rates and to register their official appointment books.