Gold trader faces tax evasion complaint

Bureau of Internal Revenue building

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed before the Department of Justice a tax evasion complaint against a gold trader.

Jimmy Bie Chua is facing five counts of attempt to evade or defeat tax and five counts of wilful failure to file his annual Income Tax Returns and pay the correct taxes for 2005 to 2009  estimated at P2.7 billion, BIR chief Kim Henares said.

Chua’s name was included in the list given to the BIR on Nov. 30, 2010 by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas containing the names of individuals who had gold and silver sales transactions with the BSP from 2005 to 2009.

Documents obtained by the BIR showed that Chua sold to BSP refined gold and silver worth P769.54 million in 2005; P856.90 million in 2006; P442.30 million in 20077; P250.33 million in 2008 and P833.80 million in 2009 for a total sale of P3.152 billion.

The BIR was able to obtain from the BSP a copy of letters of delivery and sale detailing the number of pieces and the weight of the gold and silver that he was able to sell.

He was assessed with a tax deficiency broken down as follows: P755.05 million in 2005; P785.95 million in 2006; P377.32 million in 2007; P197.48 million in 2008 and P604.67 million in 2009 totalling P2.75 billion aggregate tax deficiency.