Tax Evasion Cases

LUCIO TAN
Lucio Tan faced nine criminal cases, Nos. 98-38181 to 98-38189 for nine counts of tax
evasion. One of those is the P25.6 Billion tax evasion cases against fortune tobacco, which was
dismissed by Judge Alex Ruiz of Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC Branch 75) in Marikina City.
The court says: “We find out that the acts and or omissions upon which the aforementioned
criminal information was based on and was anchored do not exist.”
Fortune Tobacco Corporation (Fortune), Lucio C. Tan and the other co-accused, through
their counsel, have twice published a two-page advertisement in numerous newspapers on their
alleged innocence of the tax evasion charges filed against them by the Bureau of Internal
Revenue (BIR) involving Fortune's ad-valorem excise taxes, income taxes and value added taxes
for the years 1990, 1991 and 1992. Fortune's misleading newspaper advertisement constitutes a
challenge not only to the integrity and competence of the BIR officials and personnel who
obtained, gathered and organized the evidence in these cases but also to my personal honor and
integrity.
“...Based on the findings of dummy corporations and fictitious individual dealers, the BIR
(particularly the Commissioner) saw the clear and willful intent to evade the payment of
correct ad-valorem, income and value-added taxes due on the sale of Fortune's cigarettes,
and indubitable proof of misdeclaration and misrepresentation of the manufacturer's
registered wholesale price both in the manufacturer's sworn statements, required under
Section 127(c) of the Tax Code, and the Sales Invoices covering Fortune's sales to the dummy
corporations and the fictitious individual dealers.
Thus, Fortune's manufaturer sworn statements declaring its wholesale price, being
obviously fraudulent and misdeclared, were disregarded by the BIR. Instead, the BIR
obtained the 9 dummy corporations' distributors' price per cigarette brand in arriving at the
correct basis for the ad valorem, income and value-added taxes due from fortune for tax
years 1990, 1991, and 1992. There were no distributors' price that could be obtained from
the fictitious individual dealers since they were non-existent and hence could not be found.
If it were true, as Fortune's counsel alleges, that it is enough under Section 142 of the
Tax Code that the manufacturer registers its wholesale price in its Manufacturer's Sworn
Statement and the BIR would be bound by such registered wholesale price (and not be made
accountable for willful intent to evade taxes for the dummy corporations and fictitious
individuals), then why did Fortune set up marketing arms/distributors consisting of the 9
dummy corporations and more than 2,000 fictitious individual dealers, and take the trouble
and the efforts to sell its cigarettes through these dummy dealers/distributors?
Logic and reason can only lead to the conclusion that this scheme/devise was meant
purposely and willfully to evade payment of the correct amount of ad-valorem excise, income
and value-added taxes...”
WILLIAM VILLARICA
William Villarica, owner of five Villarica Pawnshop branches, was accused of failing to
file income tax returns from 2002 to 2009, according to the charge sheet filed by the Bureau of
Internal Revenue (BIR). The complaint (the BIR) claims that Villarica violated Sections 254 and
255 of the National Revenue Code of 1997 and if proven guilty he will be imprisoned for not
more than 10 years. Investigations showed that Villarica only paid P25,607.25 in taxes from
1998 to 2009 and in 2007 he supposedly bought a P26-million Lamborghini sports car, the only
year he filed an income tax return. That same year, he claimed that he had zero income.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue, learned that Villarica posted P300,000 bail to avoid jail
a few days after the Department of Justice on June 16 found probable cause for the multimillion-
peso tax evasion case against him.
The Department of Justice has filed a formal case for tax evasion in the Court of Tax
Appeals (CTA) charging Villarica with evading taxes of P22.4 million in 2007 . Of the P22.4-
million tax, P16.2 million covers the tax on luxury items as well as accumulated interest, while
P6.2 million is the value-added tax. It took the justice department one year to file a case against
Villarica before the CTA. The case against Villarica is the first “Run After Tax Evaders”
(RATE) case filed by the BIR in the Aquino administration.
The P26-million Lamborghini of Mr. William Villarica

PROJECT IN ECOTAR
(Filipino Tax Evaders)
SISON, YOLANDA C.
Ab Political Science
Submitted to:
Dr. Cecilia Palma
I3C
01.22.13

Tax Evasion Cases

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tax Evasion Cases

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LUCIO TAN

The P26-million Lamborghini of Mr. William Villarica

Dr. Cecilia Palma

You might also like