Raps filed vs tax dodging firm

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) filed a tax evasion complaint yesterday against a computer security provider and its officers for failure to pay its income taxes and value added tax (VAT) amounting to over P42.6 million from 2000 to 2003.

BIR Commissioner Jose Mario Bunag identified the respondents as Image Impressions International Inc., its president Juan Cabrera Luna and vice president Cesar Luna.

Bunag said Image Impressions entered into a contract with the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) to produce, supply and deliver to the latter’s identification cards for licensed professionals.

He said that certification secured by the BIR from the PRC pertaining to the income payments made to Image Impressions from 2000 to 2002 showed that the company earned a total amount of P58,198,908.25.

Bunag said that the alphabetical listing of income payments subjected to withholding tax submitted by the PRC to the BIR revealed that for year 2003, Image Impressions received income payments amounting to P17,309,105.

Bunag said that after careful evaluation of the revenues declared by Image Impressions in its income tax returns (ITRs), which they compared to the income payments the company received from PRC, it was discovered that the firm deliberately and substantially underdeclared its income for four consecutive years.

He said Image Impressions "willfully and deliberately concealed its true income" by not declaring the revenues earned from PRC for 2000 to 2003, which resulted to an estimated tax liabilities of P42,654,955.49 representing the deficiency income taxes and VAT including surcharges and interests covering the years 2000 to 2003.

"This is what they get from substantially underdeclaring their income earned from the supply and reproduction of PRC license cards. Not only did the under-declaration exceed 30 percent of that declared per return, but the said under-declaration was even as high as 100 percent. Again, we see here another picture of tax dodging by a company which resulted in the deprivation of the government of the taxes due to it but just like the rest, it can never get away with it," Bunag said.