Manila, Philippines – The Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) has remitted P266 million to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), representing the first tranche of payment it made to settle its more than P3.5-billion tax debts to the BIR.
BIR officials said yesterday that the first remittance covered part of the P1.2-billion deficiency Documentary Stamp Tax (DST) on the sale of lotto tickets from 2007 to 2010.
BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said the government-owned charitable institution had wrongly computed the DST, basing it on the net sale of the lotto tickets after deducting operational expenses like rental of ticket booths instead on the gross sales of the tickets.
The BIR has been pressing the PCSO to pay the huge tax debts even during the term of President now Pampanga Rep. Gloria M. Arroyo.
The previous administration pleaded for more time, saying it had no available funds even showing their bank accounts to BIR examiners with deposits totaling to only P30 million. (Jun Ramirez)