BIR files tax evasion raps vs talent manager

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed tax evasion charges yesterday against Douglas Quijano, the manager of actor Richard Gomez, after his entertainment company allegedly failed to declare and file income tax returns from 2000 to 2003.

Gomez, who himself faces similar charges, did not appear at a Department of Justice preliminary investigation of the case yesterday as he sought an extension of the deadline for submission of his counter-affidavit.

BIR Commissioner Guillermo Parayno said the bureau looked into the tax records of Harte Beest, a company founded by Gomez, who was also identified as recipient of talent fees amounting to over P18.25 million during the years that he and Harte Beest failed to make their tax declarations. Quijano is the president of the company.

Parayno said the BIR obtained a certification from television network ABS-CBN indicating that Harte Beest was given the multimillion-peso payment representing Gomez’ talent fees from 2000 to 2003.

However, Parayno said the tax evasion complaint is directed this time against the corporate officers of the entertainment company, including Quijano.

Parayno said duplicate copies of Harte Beest’s income tax returns for 2000 and 2001 showed "no operation" claim and penalty payment of P1,000 for late filing for each of the two years.

"The San Juan revenue district where Harte Beest is registered as a taxpayer also showed that the company did not file income tax returns from 2002 to 2003," the BIR chief said.

Meanwhile, lawyer Gligorick Garupa, representing Gomez, was given until May 15 to go over the complaint and submit to the DOJ panel the counter-affidavit of the actor.

Garupa said that they had just received yesterday photocopies of the complaint filed by the BIR against Gomez.

"We are appearing at the DOJ precisely to compare our records with respect to the records of the DOJ. It is important that we have to compare and verify the completeness of the records that are with us, including the records of the DOJ in order for Mr. Richard Gomez to adequately answer the charges and submit his counter-affidavit," Garupa said.

He said that under the rules of court, Gomez is not required to appear before the panel yesterday because what they did was to compare the records in their possession to those with the DOJ.

At a press conference, the BIR said it now has an expanded list of actors, actresses and other talents after the bureau was provided the complete roster of some 400 members of the Kapisanan ng Artista sa Pelikulang Pilipino at Telebisyon (KAPPT).

Earlier, the BIR said it had a list of about 219 actors and actresses currently under investigation for possible charges of tax evasion, but this list has since been expanded.

"We just asked the KAPPT for a list of their members because these are individuals with highly visible means of income," Parayno said. "We did the same thing with other professionals whose tax filing are purely on a voluntary basis."

The BIR has been under attack for what its detractors called the politically-motivated attack against Gomez, but Parayno brushed aside these allegations saying the actor merely stood out in the BIR’s automated Integrated Tax System and Taxpayer Accounting System.

"We just tell the computer to list down all known taxpayers who have not been declaring income or filing tax returns," Parayno said. "Then we get a list and the computer further tags prominent individuals based on what is already in our database."