Megaworld clarifies it paid all its taxes after BIR fiasco

MANILA— Megaworld Corp. said Wednesday it had no tax dues after the Bureau of Internal Revenue threatened to shut down the company.

In a statement, the property giant owned by billionaire Andrew Tan said the company has been regularly audited and that previous deficiencies have already been paid for by the firm and cleared by the BIR.

"Records with the BIR will confirm that Megaworld has no outstanding or unpaid past tax liabilities needing any enforcement action,” Megaworld said.

On Tuesday, the BIR announced it would issue a closure order against Megaworld on Wednesday morning. The bureau did not disclose Megaworld’s supposed tax offense and how much it owed to the government, although it scheduled a press conference at one of the company’s malls in Taguig City to answer questions from reporters.

The news triggered a brutal sell off of the stock, which plummeted by over 9% on Tuesday before erasing those losses to close up 2.94%.

But hours after the announcement, the tax agency postponed the press conference “until further notice” after representatives from Megaworld trooped to one of BIR’s offices to seek clarification on the shutdown order. Megaworld later said the matter had been “resolved”.

"There was an initial disagreement with BIR Regional Office 8-B after we raised some issues with regard to their justification on conducting tax audit of some of our properties, but the matter has been clarified and resolved yesterday," the company explained.

"For pending tax audits, the company continues to maintain its stance of full cooperation with the tax authorities in accordance with their mandates to collect badly needed revenues for the Government," it added.

As of 11:16 a.m. on Wednesday, shares in Megaworld were trading down 2.14%.