Megaworld says BIR closure threat resolved

Property giant Megaworld Corp. said on Wednesday an attempted closure order by a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) office—which caused the company’s share price to briefly crash the previous day—was due to an “initial disagreement” over jurisdiction that has since been clarified.

The publicly-listed developer, owned by billionaire Andrew Tan, added that it had no pending tax liabilities and maintained its stance of “full cooperation with the tax authorities in accordance with their mandate to collect badly needed revenues for the government.”

“Records with the BIR will confirm that Megaworld has no outstanding or unpaid past tax liabilities needing any enforcement action,” Megaworld said in a statement on Wednesday.

The tussle involved the BIR’s Regional Office 8B responsible for southern Metro Manila, which covers the cities of Pasay, Parañaque and Taguig-Pateros, the latter being the location of the builder’s Uptown Bonifacio and Mckinley Hill key integrated developments.

Megaworld said on Wednesday it was regularly audited by the large taxpayers services (LTS) of the BIR’s head office.