Pacquiao’s tax arrears mounting – Henares

The tax arrears of outgoing Sarangani congressman and incoming senator Manny Pacquiao are mounting, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares said yesterday. Henares told ABS- CBN News Channel that three years ago, the BIR assessed the Pacquiaos a tax deficiency of P3.2 billion, which included penalties, for income earned in 2008 and 2009.

“He sued us, we did not sue him. Since then, the penalties have been increasing,” she said.

She said Pacquiao’s resort to a court case did not freeze his tax liabilities.

She added that at some point, the boxing champion would have to settle those obligations.

Henares denied that Pacquiao negotiated for a compromise settlement.

“What he paid were taxes for succeeding years,” she said.

Pacquiao is the only billionaire member of the House of Representatives. He was worth P1.6 billion in 2014. He reportedly earned $240 million from the $ 600- million gross income his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. in May last year had generated.

Henares also denied that she gave a special treatment to Dunkin Donuts owners.

“They talked to me because they were contesting our assessment. I asked them if they would agree to a second audit, and they agreed. I ordered a second audit by another team and a third audit by a different team. The second and third teams had the same findings, which were made the basis for the final assessment,” she said.

She said she gave the same treatment to Dunkin Donuts as she would give to other taxpayers similarly situated.

“If you approach me to contest our assessment, I will ask you if you will accept another audit,” she added.

On the issue of increasing the 12- percent value added tax, Henares said what the incoming administration should probably do is to review VAT exemptions.

“Under the present law, there are numerous exemptions. The alphabet has not been enough for the enumeration of such exemptions. So they used AA, double B, double C, and so on,” she said.

She defended her boss, outgoing Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, against the statement of incoming finance chief Carlos Dominguez III that Purisima had six years to work for comprehensive tax reform but did not do it.