City sends Cebu Doc P81 million tax assessment

CEBU, Philippines - Acting Cebu City treasurer Ofelia Oliva has already informed the management of Cebu Doctors’ Hospital that it has an unpaid tax obligation to the city amounting to P81 million and government would be compelled to levy its property if it continue to ignore to settle it.

Oliva said she sent notice of levy and certificate of delinquency with warrant of levy to the hospital management informing them of its P81,454,234 unpaid tax obligation to the city, including surcharges and interests covering the years 2000 to 2004.

If the unpaid taxes until 2009 would be included, Oliva said that the amount could reach P200 million.

The city treasurer said that if the management of the hospital would continue to ignore its obligation after its properties were subjected to levy, within 30 days her office will hold a public auction of said properties.

The Local Government Code empowers the local government units to auction the properties of delinquent taxpayers in order to satisfy the unpaid amount of taxes, but the owner concerned delinquent taxpayer still has a one year period to redeem his property from the date of the purchase.

Cebu Doctors’ Hospital is only one of the hospitals that ignored the city’s demand for them to pay business taxes because its management insisted that they are not obliged to pay such tax claiming that their hospitals are non profit.

Aside from the hospitals, several private schools are also facing a similar problem because Mayor Tomas Osmeña had already given Oliva the go signal to implement the full force of the law against the delinquent taxpayers.

Of the schools and hospitals in Cebu City that were asked to pay up, only the University of Cebu, the Cebu Institute of Technology and Saint Vincent Hospital have agreed to amicably settle the problem by entering a compromise agreement with the city.

The agreement is that the concerned schools and hospital will just pay one half of their tax obligation in cash, while the other half will be paid in kind, through scholarship grants and free hospitalization, to beneficiaries to be approved by the city.

The city earlier wants to collect 2.5 per cent business tax out of the gross income of the schools and hospitals, but later it decided to reduce the amount to only 3/4 of one per cent or 75 centavos for every P100 of gross income. — Rene U. Borromeo/NLQ(FREEMAN NEWS)