Gov’t has caught biggest tax evader, says Dominguez

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III explains how the implementation of the Republic Act 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) can benefit the citizens and the government during a press briefing at the New Executive Building in Malacañang on Monday, Jan. 8, 2018. (Photo by TOTO LOZANO / Presidential Photographers Division)

The Duterte administration has caught the biggest tax evader in the Philippines – namely, tobacco firm Mighty Corp., which has just paid the government P30 billion to settle its tax liabilities, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Monday.

“Right now, we have not caught all the tax evaders, but we caught the biggest one, okay,” Dominguez said in a news briefing at Malacañang Palace. “We caught the tax evader who was penalized 30 billion pesos and that was Mighty Cigarettes – and Mighty is no longer in the business.”

“Their business was taken over by somebody, by another company, and no jobs were lost. But the government collected 30 billion pesos – actually 29.5 billion pesos and another half a billion pesos coming in April,” he added.

In July 2017, President Rodrigo Duterte said he had ordered the Department of Finance (DOF) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to accept a Mighty’s offer of tax settlement.

READ: ‘Biggest tax settlement on record’: Duterte accepts Mighty’s P25-B offer

Duterte had earlier said the government decided to settle with Mighty as it wanted “to avoid a long court battle that, as we saw in previous cases, could take years to resolve.” /atm