THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed separate tax evasion cases against two medical practitioners for allegedly not issuing receipts to their clients and for not registering their establishment with the agency.
Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares also filed tax cases against a Cebu-based rice dealer and a former legal counsel for Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS), both for undervaluing their respective incomes.
Henares said at the filing of the cases with the Department of Justice that Dr. Marcelle Marie Palanca Tan-Chen, or known as Dr. Crickette, and her husband, SW Tenglee Tengsico Tan, or Dr. Nigel Chen, operate Life Force 1 Medical Clinic in Makati City. The establishment offers alternative medicine treatment and sells medical supplements to its clients.
“Surveillance of the premises of Life Force 1 conducted by BIR on August 23 revealed that Nigel is not a registered taxpayer and run the business under the name of his wife Dr. Crickette,” Henares said in a news conference.
Henares said that according to appointment books and receipts, which BIR personnel confiscated, out of the 920 patients, the couple issued only two receipts.
“As a result of their unsound practice of not issuing official receipts, the [couple] accumulated [unpaid] revenues amounting to P3.12 million in July and August 2011,” Henares said, adding that the agency has filed 918 counts of tax-evasion case against the couple or one case for each failure of issuance of receipts.
Meanwhile, the BIR also filed a case against Nilo Alegado, sole proprietor of New Store that rents out a properety and deals rice in Consolacion, Cebu.
Based on documents from the National Food Authority, Alegado imported P183.94 million worth of rice in 2009.
He, however, declared only P3.41 million in total purchases for the year in his audited financial statements and his income tax return for the year. The BIR computed his total tax liability at P102.94 million.
Meanwhile, the BIR also filed a case against lawyer Danilo Cariaga, a former legal counsel of MWSS, after he allegedly undervalued his fees and failed to file his value-added tax return in 2007.
Based on the letter of the acting manager of the MWSS Finance Department, Cariaga received in 2007 P2.43 million as payment for his legal services.
A check on the income tax return of Cariaga for 2007 revealed, however, a declaration of total income of only P220,456, or an understatement of income by more than 30 percent.
Under Section 248 of the Tax Code, an underdeclaration of taxable income of more than 30 percent is considered as substantial underdeclaration and constitutes prima facie evidence of fraud tantamount to tax evasion.
