BIR: Marcoses owe P24 B in taxes

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is working closely with the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) to collect some P24 billion in taxes from the Marcos estate.

Revenue Commissioner Dakila Fonacier said over the weekend they have been conducting dialogues with PCGG officials to resolve the tax liabilities of the late dictator's family.

"We took into consideration a suggestion that those in the executive branch coordinate and work together to reach a common goal and hasten the resolution of this issue," Fonacier said.

He said the BIR and the PCGG would try to determine who really owns the Marcos assets.

"The issue here is how to collect taxes on an estate which might not be theirs," Fonacier said.

The PCGG claims that some of the properties under the Marcos estate may have been acquired through "plunder," and as such should be owned by the government.

Whether the questioned properties should be taxed or not is the dilemma now confronting the BIR.

The properties allegedly plundered by the Marcoses account for half of the entire estate. This means that if the PCGG is able to prove that the properties rightfully belong to the government, then the expected tax collection of the BIR would be cut in half.

Fonacier pointed out that the Marcos estate was essentially made up of three portions. The BIR has already conducted various schemes to dispose of the properties and translate them into government revenues.

The first portion, made up of at least seven properties in the Visayas, were forfeited by the BIR pursuant to a Supreme Court order. However, there were no bidders when the bureau tried to auction the said properties.

Fonacier said another portion of the estate, which consists of 23 pieces of properties, is now in the process of being auctioned off.

The third portion, which represents the largest chunk of the Marcos estate, is the one being questioned by the PCGG.

"There are so many snipes along the way. This is not just a simple matter of collection. We have to settle several issues first," the BIR chief said.

The projected P24-billion tax collection from the Marcos estate forms part of the P110 billion in tax cases yet to be resolved by the BIR.

Most of the cases, Fonacier pointed out, have been dragging in courts for 10 to 15 years now.