Napoles daughter surfaces before tax court

MANILA, Philippines - Jeane Catherine Napoles – daughter of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles – surfaced last Monday before the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA), confirming reports that she is back in the country.

Records from the CTA First Division showed that the younger Napoles “voluntarily appeared” before the tax court and posted a P50,000 cash bond in exchange for her provisional liberty on the P17-million tax case filed against her by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

The court set her arraignment on April 22.

Napoles posted the bail despite her motion for judicial determination of probable cause and urgent motion to defer the issuance of warrant of arrest and suspend proceedings.

Also on Monday, the CTA First Division ordered prosecutors to clarify the complaint filed against the accused.

“The court notes that the information alleges that the income tax deficiency is in the amount of ‘P17,461,038.40 more or less,’” read the court’s resolution released on the CTA website yesterday.

“The phrase ‘more or less’ is an unacceptable qualification of the principal amount of tax involved, as it fails to accurately state the amount claimed as basic tax deficiency. The information is deficient with regard to this aspect,” it added.

The CTA warned state prosecutors that the court would have to act accordingly should the DOJ fail to clarify the information.

The case stemmed from the supposed tax liabilities of the younger Napoles when she bought a condominium unit in Los Angeles, California for $1,280,000 (P54.73 million) in July 2011 and two farm lots in Pangasinan in January 2012 for P1,493,333.33.

It assessed the tax liabilities of Jeane Napoles at P17,461,038.40 for the condominium and P426,866.67 for the farm lots – a total of P17.88 million.

But based on latest information released by the CTA, it appears that only the two counts of tax evasion charges over the purchase of the condominium have been filed.

The charges were for violation of Sections 254 (Attempt to Evade Tax) and 255 (Failure to File Return) of the National Internal Revenue Code.

The case for attempting to evade taxes was raffled to the CTA first division, while the other case was raffled to the third division.