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Friday, March 29, 2024

Finance vows relentless tax campaign vs. POGOs

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Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said Wednesday there will be no letup in the crackdown on tax-dodging Philippine offshore gaming operators or POGOs and their providers.

He said a task force led by the Bureau of Internal Revenue had so far shut down at least three tax-evading POGOs and collected an initial $25 million (about P1.2 billion) from one of those online gaming companies.

“Basically, we’re going hard against people who are evading taxes,” Dominguez said in a statement.

Internal Revenue said it had closed  11 offshore gaming branches for tax violations.

 The branches, owned by service provider New Oriental Club 88 Corp., were closed for not paying taxes. The branches were also unregistered, BIR deputy commissioner for Operations Arnel Guballa said. 

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Meanwhile, police said they arrested eight Chinese nationals and a Filipino in separate operations in Laguna and Parañaque City.

PNP Anti-Kidnapping Group spokesman Joel Saliba identified the suspects as Chen Kai En, Wang Jian Xiong, Mei Lin and Ariel Carmona, a Filipino. They  were all arrested in San Pedro City, Laguna, on Saturday.

The next day, the suspects’ cohorts Jack Chan and Ruohuang Chen were arrested in Cabuyao City.

Internal Revenue said it had so far collected P1.63 billion in withholding taxes from POGOs and their service providers covering the period January to August this year.

These online gaming firms paid P175 million in withholding taxes in 2017 and P579 million in 2018.

BIR deputy commissioner Arnel Guballa said the bureau had so far listed 218 POGOs and their service providers with a total of 108,914 foreign workers.

The BIR earlier ordered the temporary closure of the operations of Great Empire Gaming and Amusement Corp. on Sept. 25 for its failure to pay the correct amount of taxes.

After initially paying P250 million, and the issuance of an undertaking to settle its remaining tax arrears of P1.050 billion in three separate monthly payments covered by postdated checks, GEGAC was allowed by the BIR to resume operations on Sept. 27.

GEGAC was also required to update its withholding tax payments and to register its employees with the BIR.

On  Oct. 17, the BIR also padlocked the head office in Parañaque City and its branch in Pasay City of Altech Innovations Business Outsourcing for the firm’s failure to register as a value-added tax taxpayer.

And on Wednesday, the BIR closed down the unregistered POGO branches of the New Oriental Club 88 Corp. in Parañaque City for violating the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.

The BIR said New Oriental operates as a customer relations service provider and live studio streaming provider with its main office in Makati City and several branches in Parañaque City. With PNA

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