Richard Gutierrez in deeper hole with tax case

Richard Gutierrez

Actor Richard Gutierrez appeared to have gotten himself in deeper trouble while defending himself against his P38.57-million tax evasion case.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed additional criminal complaints against the actor for “knowingly using and submitting” falsified tax returns and perjured sworn statements during the preliminary investigation of the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Gutierrez used fake and falsified tax returns to secure the dismissal of the tax evasion case filed against R Gutz Production Corp. He resorted to his scheme to evade payment of taxes/fees imposed by the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, thereby defrauding the government of much needed revenues,” the BIR said in a statement.

Last April 21, the BIR filed a tax evasion case against Gutierrez as president of the entertainment outfit R Gutz Production Corp., claiming he and the company owed the government P38.57 million in taxes and interests for undeclared income in 2012.

The BIR alleged that the 33-year-old actor did not declare P39.6 million in sales from April to December 2012, and that his company did not file an annual income tax return and quarterly value-added tax returns that year.

During the preliminary investigation at the DOJ last July 18, Gutierrez personally submitted his counteraffidavit and asked that the case be dismissed.

In the new complaints filed on Thursday, the BIR claimed Gutierrez’s counteraffidavit contained a falsified annual income tax return for 2012 and three falsified quarterly value-added tax returns for 2012.

The actor was also accused of trying to make it appear that he or another person filed the tax returns, when the BIR Revenue District Office (RDO) in San Juan City and the document processing division of BIR Quezon City have certified that R Gutz Productions Corp. did not file such tax returns.

According to the BIR, the receiving officer Renato Agana claimed that his initials in Gutierrez’s documents appeared to have been forged and that the rubber stamp marks in them were not those used by the San Juan City RDO.

The tax evasion case against Gutierrez was the 57th filed under the BIR’s Run After Tax Evaders campaign under the term of Commissioner Caesar Dulay.