Consolacion Mayor defends husband accused of tax evasion
THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) charged Nilo Alegado, husband of Consolacion Mayor Teresa Alegado, with tax evasion before the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Nilo is facing a P102.4-million case, the amount he allegedly did not declare.
Have something to report? Tell us in text, photos or videos.
BIR Commissioner Kim Henares was quoted in a Manila Bulletin article that Nilo, a rice importer, failed to declare accurate information on his income tax return (ITR) for 2009.
Mayor Alegado yesterday said that while she already divested her interest in their rice business, which is located at the Consolacion Public Market, she knows Nilo has been paying taxes on the rice importation.
“Had the BIR officials called us to explain the importation during their alleged investigation, we can surely present the BIR receipts as proof that my husband paid taxes. We are sure we can show proof that we paid taxes. But the damaged has been done because my husband has already been maligned by the filing of this case,” the mayor said.
She said her husband did not receive a single letter from the BIR, informing him that he was under investigation for tax evasion.
“The BIR officials who prepared the case and filed it are really unfair to my husband. In our 31 years in the rice business, we have religiously paid taxes. The BIR personnel in Cebu can attest that our records are clean,” she said.
She said they are able to import rice because they comply with all government requirements.
“Our bookkeepers and accountant are the ones who prepare the documents for payments of taxes because we trust them,” she added.
Atty. Neri Yu, the chief of the legal division of the BIR 13, told Sun.Star Cebu that the case against Nilo did not pass his office because this was handled by the Run After Tax Evaders, the BIR’s tax collection scheme.
In the same Manila Bulletin article, Henares was quoted as saying that Nilo imported rice worth P183.01 million in 2009, but only declared P3.41 million on his ITR and audited financial statements, based on records the bureau obtained from the National Food Authority.
Under the Tax Code, an underdeclaration of taxable sales of more than 30 percent is considered substantial underdeclaration and constitutes prima facie evidence of fraud tantamount to tax evasion.
Henares was quoted as saying the BIR investigators saw a discrepancy of P179.60 million between Nilo’s declared income and the real income it made from the rice importation in 2009.
“Adding the declared sales of Mr. Alegado in his ITR of P4.33 million, sales should have been P183.94 million. The total percentage of underdeclaration of sales per investigation is 4,143.34 percent,” Henares said in the Manila Bulletin article.