The state-owned gaming firm Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has been computing its tax dues incorrectly, according to the National Tax Research Center (NTRC).

Pagcor is covered by the 35 percent corporate income tax and 12 percent value-added tax under Republic Act No. 9334, which took effect in 2005. Another law, Republic Act No. 7656, which took effect in 1993, imposes on Pagcor a 5-percent franchise tax on gross earnings and requires Pagcor to remit to the government 50 percent of its gross revenues after franchise tax, said he NTRC, an agency attached to the Department of Finance tasked with doing tax-related studies.

The NTRC said Pagcor includes only income from regular gambling games in computing its 5-percent franchise tax and the 50-percent revenue share of the government.

Other sources of income—such as casino, bingo and Internet gaming licensing—have been excluded from Pagcor’s computation of its gross revenues, the NTRC said in a report.

Pagcor has four privately owned casino licensees—Fontana Casino, Poro Point Casino, East Bay Casino, and Fort Stotsenberg—and receives 10 percent of the gross earnings of these licensees, the NTRC said in its study.

The NTRC said there are 144 Bingo franchisees of Pagcor all over the country and these remit 20 percent of their gross revenues to Pagcor.

“Since there is only one franchise granted, which is the one given to Pagcor, it only seems logical that all income derived from the extension of this franchise to private casino operators through licensing be included in the gross revenue on which the 5-percent franchise tax and the 50-percent government share shall be derived,” the NTRC said. Michelle V. Remo; edited by INQUIRER.net