Tax Court to pursue tax evasion case vs Jeane Napoles

The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) will proceed with the trial of Jeane Catherine Napoles for tax evasion despite the decision of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to impose the tax on her Ritz Carlton condo unit in Los Angeles on her mother, Janet Lim-Napoles, who gave the property as gift to her daughter.

In a June 29 resolution released this week, the CTA Third Division denied Jeane’s motion to quash the criminal charges O-452 and O-453 for her alleged failure to pay income taxes on her Ritz Carlton condo unit.

Jeane argued the corpus delicti (facts and circumstances constituting a breach of law) of the case was extinguished after the BIR issued on Nov. 29 last year a preliminary assessment notice (PAN) imposing a tax on her mother Janet for the said property.

The younger Napoles had claimed that she was just a student with no taxable income and had only received the property as a gift from her parents.

The tax court acknowledged the Ritz Carlton indeed fell under investments in the US section of Janet’s PAN. But, it said that this sole argument raised by Jeane was not a basis to stop her ongoing trial for tax evasion.

“The court finds no justifiable reason to dismiss the case based merely on the PAN received by Janet Lim-Napoles,” read the three-page resolution. —Vince F. Nonato