2 doctors, lawyer, Cebu businessman charged with tax evasion
MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Internal Revenue filed tax evasion charges against two doctors—a husband-and-wife-team running a medical clinic—a lawyer and a businessman on Thursday as the tax collection agency continued to go after professionals allegedly not reporting their incomes or paying their taxes religiously.
Of the 920 patients that the spouses Marcelle Marie Palanca Tan-Chen and SW Tenglee Tengsico Tan saw from July to August this year, they issued official receipts to only two individuals, Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said at a news conference at the Department of Justice where she formally filed the charges.
In addition to the Tan-Chen couple, Henares filed tax evasion charges against lawyer Danilo Cariaga who reportedly received P2.43 million for his services to the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System in 2007 and Cebu-based businessman Nilo Alegado for incurring a tax deficiency of P102.9 million.
Henares said the Tan-Chen couple run the Life Force 1 Medical Clinic at the Medical Plaza in Makati City.
She said that Marcelle—alias Dr. Crickette—is a licensed pediatrician with several clinics, while her husband is an alternative medicine practitioner.
Under their Life Force clinic, Marcelle and her husband provide alternative medical treatments and sell food supplements.
On August 23, the BIR conducted a surveillance of the Life Force clinic and discovered that Nigel was not a registered taxpayer.
“Nigel Tan is not registered as a practising [doctor] nor [registered to be] doing business,” Henares said.
Moreover, he was discovered to be using official receipts in the name of his wife, the BIR said in a statement.
The official receipts were also found to have been printed for the use of Marcelle’s clinic at Unit 1609 16/F in Medical Plaza.
“A comparison of the confiscated receipts being issued under the name of Marcelle and the appointment book showed a glaring discrepancy—[the] OR was issued to only two patients as against the appointment book which recorded 920 patients,” the BIR said.
As a result, the couple amassed up to P3.12 million in earnings in July and August this year, it said.
“While Nigel registered as a local employee and filed tax returns on September 2011 after the surveillance and apprehension were conducted, the same were merely an afterthought that did not cure the violations but merely enhanced the apparent use of deceit,” the BIR added.
As for lawyer Danilo Cariaga, the BIR said that despite his multi-million earnings in 2007 from the MWSS, he declared a total income of only P220,456 in his Income Tax Return (ITR), failing to “supply the correct information… by more than 30 percent.”
“Under Section 248 of the Tax Code, an under declaration of taxable income of more than 30 percent is considered as substantial under-declaration and constitutes prima facie evidence of fraud tantamount to tax evasion,” the BIR said.
The acting manager of the MWSS finance department provided the information on how much the agency paid Cariaga, and submitted the pertinent disbursement voucher and check to the BIR.
The BIR said Cariaga, a resident of Villa Aurora Townhomes in Quezon City, had a total tax deficiency of P1.39 million for 2007, but he also failed to pay his Value Added Tax returns for 2007, amounting to P557,036.25 inclusive of surcharges and interests.
This raised Cariaga’s total tax liability to P1.95 million.
At the press conference, Henares said that only 195,000 professionals have registered with the BIR as “self-employed,” but records of the Professional Regulatory Commission (PRC) show that there are some three million licensed professionals in the country.
“Of course, that three million figure will go down, remove the seamen and the nurses because they are usually… employed by somebody [else]. But even if we halve the [three million] figure to 1.5 million, it is still very far from the 195,000. And if we say of the 1.5 million, one half are employed abroad, the estimate, 750,000 compared to 195,000… there are still really a lot of professionals who are engaged in business by practicing their profession and who are not registered and are not paying taxes,” Henares said.
As for businessman Alegado, the BIR said he failed to provide the correct information in his ITR for 2009, declaring only P4.33 million worth of sales while he actually earned P183.94 million.
“[The] total percentage of under-declaration of sales per investigation is 4,143.34 percent,” the BIR said in its statement.
According to the BIR, Alegado is the sole proprietor of a duly registered business engaged in the renting of real properties and rice dealing, operating under the name “New Store.”
His business is located at the Consolacion Public Market in Poblacion Oriental, Consolacion, Cebu.
The BIR was able to determine that Alegado made rice importations in 2009 worth P183.01 million from the records of the National Food Authority.
“A comparison of the same amount with the declaration of Alegado in his ITR and Audited Financial Statements for the same year filed with the BIR revealed purchases of just P3.41 million, a huge discrepancy in the total amount of P179.60 million which is tantamount to under-declared sales per investigation,” the BIR said.
Alegado’s tax deficiency amounted to P102.94 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests, the BIR said.
