Court upholds decision favoring hotel owner in tax dispute

Grand Plaza Hotel Corp. (GPH), owner and operator of The Heritage Hotel in Pasay City, has scored another legal victory against the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) which was running after an alleged tax deficiency worth P508.1 million.

The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) upheld an earlier ruling that declared null and void the BIR’s tax deficiency assessment for fiscal year 2008.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange on Wednesday, GPH said it had received a copy of the resolution rendered by the CTA on the tax dispute.

The CTA en banc, in its resolution, decided in favor of GPH and “found no cogent reason to warrant reconsideration of the decision of the CTA en banc on Sept. 29, 2020.”

In October last year, the BIR filed a motion for reconsideration of the decision that favored GPH.

GPH’s The Heritage Hotel Manila—a 467-room hotel with amenities such as restaurants, ballrooms, and a casino at the corner of Edsa and Roxas Boulevard—opened in 1994, catering mainly to corporate clients from different countries. The majority of its room guests are Americans, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos and guests from Southeast Asian nations. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA