SC stops collection of P3-B tax bond from Pacquiao couple

The Supreme Court has stopped the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) from collecting from Sarangani Rep. and now senatorial aspirant Manny Pacquiao and his wife Jinkee a cash bond of P3.298 billion, or a surety bond of P4.9 billion as a condition to suspend the collection of the couple’s supposed unpaid taxes to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

In a decision on Tuesday, the Supreme Court’s Second Division partially granted the Pacquiao’s’ certiorari plea and issued a writ of preliminary injunction stopping the bond requirement until the CTA settles the question of whether such payment is necessary in the first place.

The writ extended the effect of the temporary restraining order (TRO) that the high court had issued in favor of the couple in 2014.  The court said the writ “shall remain in effect until the issues are settled in a preliminary hearing to be conducted by the CTA.”

In its latest decision, the high court sent the case back to the CTA to determine whether to enforce or reduce the bond requirement.

“… [T]he cases is hereby remanded to the CTA First Division, which is ordered to conduct a preliminary hearing to determine whether the dispensation or reduction of the required cash deposit or bond provided under Sec. 11, Republic Act

No. 1125 is proper to restrain the collection of deficiency taxes assessed against the petitioners,” said the high court.

The cited law is the act creating the CTA.

“The court also found that in the event the CTA should find that the petitioners should provide the necessary security (bond payment), a recomputation of the amount thereof is in order,” the high court said.

The court noted that the CTA had not even determined whether BIR Commissioner Kim Henares had erred in determining the couple’s alleged tax deficiencies.