Spam, Ma-Ling importers face tax evasion raps

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed tax-evasion charges in the Department  of Justice against the importers of the popular luncheon meat products Spam and Ma-Ling for allegedly unpaid taxes of more than P600 million from 2009 to 2013.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Estela Sales filed the complaint against Allan Tiongco and Celia Lazaga-La Victoria for alleged willful attempt to evade taxes and for deliberate failure to file income tax returns.

Tiongco and La Victoria were assessed total tax liabilities of P223.27 million and P385 million respectively, including surcharges and interest.

Tiongco is the sole proprietor of Sysreg Enterprises, while La Victoria owns Matlock Import Trading. Sysreg and Matlock import Spam and Ma-Ling products, respectively.

Sales said the cases were prompted by a series of Tax Watch ads published in the broadsheets by the Department of Finance and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to highlight questionable practices by some importers.

The BIR sent access letters to the BOC asking for a summary of importations made by the respondents. In reply, the BOC issued letters with compact discs containing the requested information.

Access letters were also sent to the BIR which issued certifications stating that Tiongco and La Victoria had not filed any income tax returns, quarterly value-added tax returns or percentage tax returns.

Sales said investigators found that both respondents regularly made importations amounting to millions of pesos without declaring any source of income from 2009 to 2013.–Jerome Aning