Negligent taxpayers face 10 years in prison – TMAP
The Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP) reminded taxpayers to comply with their fiscal obligations, stressing that neglect of their duties to remit taxes and file income tax return (ITR) is punishable by up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
In a statement issued over the weekend, TMAP also joined political figures and former tax officials in lamenting the recent ruling to allow a tax code violator to run for president.
Under Section 255 of the 1997 Tax
Code, individuals who fail to pay their taxes, submit ITR, keep their records or supply accurate information will be slapped with a fine of P10,000 and prison time between one year and 10 years.
As such, TMAP echoed Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III’s appeal to the public to deliver on their tax obligations. The government is enduring a backlash from taxpayers who interpreted an election ruling as justification to neglect the filing of ITR or, worse, evade taxes.
“Thus, all taxpayers, except those exempted by the law from filing tax returns such as those earning compensation income qualified for substituted filing, are enjoined to faithfully comply with their tax filing obligations,” TMAP said.
Last week, Dominguez also reminded taxpayers that failure to file ITR is punishable under the existing tax code in an attempt to address the growing outrage to permit Ferdinand Marcos Jr., namesake of the late dictator, to vie for the highest position in the land.
Dominguez said tax rules in the 1980s, when Marcos Jr. committed the violations, were different from those which exist now.
Citing Batas Pambansa 135, amending specific provisions of the 1977 Tax Code, taxpayers who failed to pay their taxes on time or file their ITR were sanctioned with a fine of up to P2,000 or imprisonment for a maximum of six months, or both.
However, the law also stated that individuals with compensation taxable by the code and where the tax was withheld by the government are exempted from suffering such penalties.
According to the law, the exemption covers both failure to remit tax on income and file the returns.
After filing his certificate of candidacy (COC) last October, Marcos was faced with petitions seeking to derail his presidential bid filed before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) by civil society groups that included martial law victims.
They sought his disqualification from running for public office on the ground of having committed a crime that constituted “moral turpitude” when he opted to neglect his filing of ITR four times in the 1980s.
However, the Comelec First Division dismissed the disqualification cases, with one of the commissioners saying “the failure to file tax returns is not inherently wrong in the absence of a law punishing it.”
This raised doubts on whether or not the government is serious in its efforts to promote tax compliance.
In a TV interview, former internal revenue commissioner Kim Henares said Marcos should be disqualified from running for public office even without a Comelec decision, as the tax code prohibits tax violators from gunning for any position in the government.
“The tax code specifically said that if you are a government official and you violate any provision of this tax code and you get convicted, the accessory penalty is perpetual disqualification from office. You are disqualified perpetually. Moral turpitude does not even come in because it is a specific provision of the tax code,” Henares said.