Flour, LPG traders, engineer face tax raps

Bureau of Internal Revenue building. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed at the Department of Justice separate criminal complaints against a sanitary engineer, a flour trader and a liquefied petroleum gas retailer for evading taxes worth P135 million.

Following an investigation, the BIR charged Diosdado Sison, a civil sanitary engineer from Quezon City, with violation of the National Internal Revenue Code for alleged under-declaration of his income for 2010 by 2,778.66 percent. Sison allegedly declared a gross income of P777,714 that year but the BIR found out that he got P22.39 million from a firm that year.

Under Sec. 248 (B) of the Tax Code, under-declaration of taxable income by more than 30 percent constitutes a prima facie case of fraud.

Sison is being sued for an aggregate tax liability amounting to P18.95 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests, broken down into P14.92 million income tax and P4.03 million value added tax (VAT).

The BIR also filed a case against accountant Danilo Lincod, who allegedly certified Sison’s financial statements. Lincod was charged with violation of Section 257 of the tax code, which punishes accountants who aid another in the commission of tax evasion with up to P100,000 fine and up to six years behind bars.–Jerome Aning