BIR has lost its P197-million tax collection case against Atlas Consolidated Mining and Development Corporation for failing to include the company itself in the filing of criminal complaint against its former president.
In a 17-page resolution, the court en banc affirmed the decision of one of its division that the company should have also been included in the tax collection case for the imposition of fines. The CTA said a corporation or juridical entity, citing a verdict of the Supreme Court on similar case, should also be included in the criminal complaint though it cannot be arrested and penalized with imprisonment.
It said the corporation may be charged and prosecuted for a crime of non-payment of taxes which penalty is a fine.
It added the non-inclusion of the mining firm violated its right to due process of answering the charges.
“It is therefore indispensable to implead the corporation as a party in a criminal case for violation of the provision of the Tax Code for the government to enforce collection of the tax against such entity by way of criminal action pursuant to Section 205 of the Tax Code,” it said.
Likewise, the court noted that the BIR can no longer collect the tax debts because the five-year prescriptive period had elapsed from the filing of the tax return.
Records showed that the Masbate revenue district office issued the assessment notice on March 24, 2000 to expire after May 24, 2005 for the payment of deficiency excise tax incurred in 1991, 1992 and 1993.
The court also said the issuance by the revenue district office of the seizure warrant on August 19,2010 was also invalid as it was way beyond the prescriptive period for the collection of the deficiency tax.
The resolution issued last week was penned by Justice Esperanza Fabon-Victorino and concurred by the other tax justices.
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