The Bureau of Internal Revenue has virtually scrapped its Run-After-Tax-Evaders shame campaign by limiting its application to taxpayers who have ignored or refused to settle their deficiency tax assessments.
In a chance interview, BIR Revenue Deputy Commissioner for Legal Service Clint Aranas explained that the primary task of the BIR is to collect taxes and not to prosecute or send taxpayers with delinquent accounts to jail.
Aranas said delinquent taxpayers will be given the chance to settle their back accounts before criminal and administrative sanctions are filed.
It will be recalled that the previous BIR management had filed tax evasion complaints with the Department of Justice every other week even without first erring taxpayers about their back accounts first.
The BIR then filed complaints outright if alleged prima facie case is established such as when there is a finding that a taxpayer underdeclared his sales by 30 percent or more.
Some revenue officials and even DoJ prosecutors said they favor the new BIR strategy, saying it will result in the immediate collection of delinquent accounts and avoidance of protracted court litigations that oftentimes are not resolved in the government’s favor.
Records of the Court of Tax Appeals showed that many big tax evasion cases involving millions of pesos were dismissed on various grounds like failure of the prosecutors to establish deliberate or willful neglect of taxpayers not to pay correct taxes.
There were also instances that the court nullified BIR assessments because taxpayers did not personally receive them as required by the Tax Code or the notice was sent to wrong addresses.
It was also learned that some DoJ prosecutors have been practicing the new policy of not immediately filing tax evasion cases with the court in cases in which taxpayers readily agreed to settle the civil aspects of their cases by paying the back accounts, including interest and surcharges, as what happened to the complaints against three movie stars and a popular singer.
This contrasted with the policy then of the old BIR management to file criminal charges against suspected tax cheats even if they agreed to pay all deficiency taxes.
The same sources cited the case of a billionaire businessman who signified his willingness to settle the full deficiency tax assessment but the offer was rejected by the BIR. (Jun Ramirez)