Businessman, firm accused of deficient tax assessment

MANILA, Philippines - The ex-wife of former Standard Chartered Bank country head Ervin Knox has accused a businessman and his company of deficient tax assessment for a property she sold to them last year.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), with which socialite Maria Josefina del Gallego-Knox filed her complaint, said its computation supposedly showed that the company of businessman Mel Velarde still owed the government P4.356 million in capital gains tax and P1.089 million in documentary stamp tax, inclusive of surcharges.

“The BIR believes that there was a substantial undervaluation of the purchase price of the house and lot, resulting in losses in revenue for the government,” lawyer Gregorio Cabantac, BIR deputy commissioner for legal and enforcement, said in a statement.

But Velarde’s camp said what it paid was the right amount for the correct value of the property, which was P16 million.

Velarde’s legal counsel Ruby Yusi told The STAR that Knox allegedly bloated the amount of the sale that she declared to the BIR to P60 million.

In her complaint affidavit with the BIR, Knox alleged that Velarde, owner of Verdant Treasures Inc., undervalued the house and lot in Barangay Balaytigue, Nasugbu, Batangas.

The 999-square meter property – including the house designed by Ed Calma – was sold to Verdant Treasures in August 2009.

Knox said the house and lot was sold on the condition that Velarde would pay the capital gains tax and documentary stamp tax.

But Knox told the BIR that she later found out that Velarde only paid P960,000 in capital gains tax and P240,000 in documentary stamp tax

Cabantac said their investigation revealed that Velarde secured the land title by presenting a deed of sale for only P16 million, and not P60 million as what was actually paid to Knox.

Yusi said Knox’s complaint was in “retaliation” for the robbery case they filed against her for allegedly taking items from the sold house.

Yusi added that Knox earlier had filed a falsification case against the company, alleging that she never signed a deed of sale for the property.

He said Knox is now “contradicting herself” by saying that she (Knox) signed a contract with the buyer that included an agreement that the company would be the one to pay the now contested taxes.        – With Iris Gonzales