The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday said it filed a total of 41 tax evasion charges against a construction firm and a metal business firm for their utilization of ghost tax receipts to evade paying taxes.
Ghost receipts are those with fictitious underlying transactions where buyers of the same declare in their tax returns to illegally lessen their tax due.
“Let this be a warning to those who purposely betray public trust by defrauding the State of collecting its due. Taxes are the life blood of this nation and by deceptively evading the same equates to outright robbing from the Filipino people,” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said.
Specifically resolved in favor of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), 37 cases were lodged before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) and Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) of Pasig City against E.D. Buenviaje Builders Inc.
Meanwhile, four charges were lodged before the Malabon City RTC and Manila City MeTC against Limhuaco Metal Industrial Inc. together with their responsible corporate officers.
It can be recalled that charges were previously filed against sellers of ghost receipts, namely, Decarich Supertrade Inc., Crazykitchen Foodtrade Corp., Buildforce Trading Inc., Redington Corporation, Everpacific Inc., and Unimaker Enterprise Inc.
Said companies do not have any legitimate business activity and were only established to sell fake receipts to buyer corporations and individuals so that the latter can claim them as fake deductions or expenses to maliciously lessen tax liabilities.
This time, charges were filed against the said construction and metal business firms for being recipients of the said fictitious receipts.
The audit and other enforcement measures against buyers and sellers of ghost receipts were pioneered by the BIR’s Run After Fake Transactions (RAFT) Program.
The BIR is auditing buyers and sellers of ghost receipts who still have pending criminal cases before the DOJ while some have already been elevated to the courts with pending warrants of arrest against their corporate officers.
