House tackles Sereno’s taxes

THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Monday, Feb. 19, said it found discrepancies in the tax declarations of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P.A. Sereno.

During the 16th deliberation on the impeachment case against the Chief Justice, BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel G. Guballa said his team is currently conducting an investigation on the tax declarations but opted to not release the information yet pending the approval of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

To recall, the House of Representatives’ committee on justice on Feb. 7 directed Mr. Guballa to form a special team to check Ms. Sereno’s tax declarations for possible liabilities in relation to her failure to submit 17 years of statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs).

“The BIR now collated the records in our database pertaining to the tax records of the Chief Justice. We have made some observations, findings on the declarations of the Chief Justice, but as of the moment, we are still waiting for the approval of the Office of the President wherein we are barred by Section 270 of the tax code,” Mr. Guballa said.

He added: “As of now, we have made some observations regarding the declaration and there are some discrepancies but we cannot yet...divulge the exact figures because of the prohibition under Section 270.”