After ‘Goma,’ BIR goes after Regine

Singer Regine Velasquez is facing charges of tax evasion for under-declaring her income and filing a fraudulent tax return for 2003.

The Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) added Velasquez to its growing list of alleged tax evaders that now include actor Richard Gomez, basketball player Asi Taulava and fitness guru Tina Juan.

Officials reported that Velasquez originally claimed tax refunds but revenue officials instead discovered that she had under-declared her income by over 30 percent. She faces a jail term of one to 10 years if convicted.

The DOF and the BIR filed the complaint against Velasquez, known as "Asia’s Songbird," for under-declaring her income in 2003 by P3.75 million.

BIR Commissioner Guillermo Parayno said the amount represented Velasquez’s income as a product endorser for Nestle Philippines Inc. and is equivalent to about 48.29 percent of the income she declared in 2003.

He said Velasquez — a registered taxpayer and resident of Bulacan — had consistently filed her tax returns from 2000 to 2002 with the BIR office in Malolos. For 2003, however, the BIR discovered an out-of-district return made by Velasquez in its Caloocan City office, which transmitted it to Malolos City, Parayno added.

He said the BIR found out about Velasquez’s under-declaration from her claims on tax refunds for 2001 and 2002 as well as her tax return for 2003, in which she declared her tax due equal to tax already withheld.

"Computer records showed that Velasquez declared a combined income of more than P7.7 million from Viva Television Corp., Maximedia International and GMA Network for 2003," he said.

However, Velasquez allegedly did not declare her income from her Nestle product endorsements and the BIR only found out from a certification from Nestle that she had omitted her Nestle income in her 2003 tax declaration.

"Celebrities should realize that it is hard to hide income and evade taxes because they are very visible," Parayno said. "Even without our system in place, people will remember her high-profile endorsement of Nestle products, among other endorsements."

He said Velasquez — the main talent in the ongoing "Biyahe Na" commercials aired by the Department of Tourism and Smart Communications to spur domestic tourism — has been a product endorser for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Wendy’s fastfood restaurant chain, Digitel, Lux, Smart, and Nokia.

Parayno added that Velasquez has performed in a series of concerts here and abroad, is one of the actresses favored by Viva Films Inc. with a string of movies to her name, and co-hosts popular the Sunday television show "SOP."

According to DOF Undersecretary Emmanuel Bonoan, "People should realize that we are serious about running after tax evaders... Sooner or later, the law will catch up with them."

On the other hand, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said the DOF would also start aggressively filing charges against government officials found engaging in graft and corruption.

"We want to make sure that the money we should collect from responsible taxpayers is not lost to corruption," Purisima said. "We are going to run after corrupt government money handlers."

The DOF’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service, headed by Bonoan, filed corruption charges last week against revenue district officer Beltran Aquino Dy of the BIR’s district office in Balanga, Bataan and Concepcion Daplas, Pasay City treasurer and concurrently the officer-in-charge of the Bureau of Local Government Finance in Region 7.

Parayno said the BIR’s twin campaigns — one to run after tax evaders and another against corrupt government officials and employees — should generate much-needed revenue for the government and curb the loss of revenue to corruption.

"These two programs under BIR, however, would only be successful with the cooperation of the public and government prosecutors," he said.

Parayno urged those with information on acts of corruption to report them to the BIR’s National Investigation Division at tel. no. 925-5449 or its Enforcement Service at 922-4751.

"A reward of as much as P1 million awaits informers whose reports lead to the prosecution of tax evaders and the recovery of money lost to tax evasion," he said.

In a statement released yesterday, the BIR reported that it had filed 61 tax evasion cases and won two separate convictions for tax evasion at the level of the regional trial court (RTC).

RTC Branch 39 in Oriental Mindoro sentenced Socrates Dimatulac to jail for two to four years for failing to pay P27.6 million in value-added and income taxes from 1992 to 1994. The court ordered him to pay what he owed the government as well as a fine of P10,000 with an additional term in jail if he is insolvent.

RTC Branch 3 in Balanga, Bataan ordered Ernesto Mallari to pay the total of P1.4 million he owed in value-added and income taxes, plus 25 percent of the entire amount, and 20 percent interest per annum since October 1995.

Apart from the cases it filed under its Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program, the BIR filed 61 more tax evasion cases, 51 of which were filed at prosecutors’ offices in Makati, Manila, Quezon City, San Pablo in Laguna, Nueva Ecija and Davao. Most of them are awaiting resolution.

Revenue officials filed the remaining 10 cases with the Department of Justice. Among the more prominent respondents in these cases are Faustino Chingkoe of Diamond Knitting Corp., Jimmy Gaw of Cellpage International, Dante Tan of BW Resources, Efrain Pelaez of Eastpoint Marina Properties, and Peter Wee, Evelyn Tan and other officials of Ackers Philippines Inc.

"There is no stopping us from pursuing cases against recalcitrant taxpayers. We have the technology to ensure this and it will only be a matter of time when we will catch them. There is nowhere to hide," Parayno said.

Under its RATE program, the BIR filed tax evasion charges against Gomez, Taulava, Juan, celebrity doctor Joel Mendez, former military comptroller Carlos Garcia and his wife Clarita, PT &T president Jose Luis Santiago, Wu Wen Ping and Wu Wen Piao of Excellence Weaving Mills, and couple Edgardo Tecson Yambao and Maria Isabel.