Henares: BIR followed SOP in Pacquiao case
MANILA, Philippines –Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares denied that the agency was harassing Sarangani Representative Manny Pacquiao, noting that the agency followed its standard operating procedure when conducting a tax audit.
Pacquiao on Monday slammed the BIR for filing a case against him which, he said, tarnished his name and caused foreign companies to drop him as an endorser. But in an interview with ANC’s Top Story on Monday, Henares said they were only doing their job.
“That’s our job. We investigate and then we ask them to give us documents. And Congressman Manny Pacquiao, despite numerous notices has not done that,” Henares said.
“We are still at the point where we are asking him, investigating him and asking him to give us documents. And that is normal standard operating procedure when we audit somebody,” she added.
Early March, the BIR filed a case against Pacquiao for violating Section 266 of the National Internal Revenue Code, which is failure to heed summons.
“It also normal and standard operating procedure if, after several notices, the taxpayer does not (submit documents), we file a case against him for violation of Section 266,” Henares said.
The commissioner also noted that Pacquiao’s case is “very simple.” “He presents documents and the case will be withdrawn,” she said.
Pacquiao claims, however, that he has already sent a messenger to present documents to the BIR regional office twice.
In the first instance, the BIR did not accept the documents because there were some missing papers. When Pacquiao's messenger went to the BIR some time later with the documents, the agency once again did not accept the papers because the regional director was not present on that day.
Foreign and local income
Among the documents the BIR is asking for are Pacquiao’s contracts for his 2010 fights against Joshua Clottey and Antonio Margarito.
The boxer insists, however, that he should no longer be taxed in the Philippines for his earnings in those fights since he has already paid taxes with the Internal Revenue Service in the United States.
Henares explained, however, that a Filipino citizen is taxed on his global income.
“You are supposed to report your income, and compute for Philippine taxation and minus whatever US or foreign taxes you pay. If that is still (lacking), you pay the difference,” she said.
“And I just want to clarify. We are not talking about his foreign income. We are talking about his Philippine income,” Henares said, adding that Pacquiao earns a lot of money from his commercials and advertisements, as well as a game show.
“For those [income] that you earn in the Philippines, and I don’t think he can deny that he earns a lot of money in the Philippines, he should pay Philippine taxes,” Henares said.
Moreover, Henares does not understand why Pacquiao is “creating so much fuss” about the case filed against him.
“I don’t understand what Congressman Pacquiao is griping about, when he could just have presented the documents, his endorsements and his contracts,” she said.
Pacquiao’s lawyers are planning to contest the validity of the subpoena that the BIR served the boxer.
“We are going to contest this and secure a ruling from a court, eventually, to declare the subpoena as null and void, and therefore, the criminal case that arose out of it is likewise without basis,” said Dean Abraham Espejo of the New Era University.
According to Henares, Pacquiao’s tax payments went down drastically in 2009 and 2010 after being one of the top taxpayers in the country in 2008.