ILOILO City – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR 11, Panay Island) appealed to business establishments in Western Visayas to declare their correct sales and pay the corresponding taxes.
“Informers give us data,” warned Alberto Olasiman, BIR 11 director, that could be used as basis to conduct tax surveillance.
BIR 11 recently padlocked three branches of New Ginzu Merchandising for under-declaring sales.
They also failed to pay the right taxes, said Olasiman.
New Ginzu Merchandising’s main branch was on Ledesma Street here. Its two other branches were in the Iloilo province’s municipalities of Pototan and Miag-ao.
BIR revenue deputy commissioner for operations Arnel Guballa issued the closure order.
In enforcing the order on Dec. 13, BIR 11 tapped the help of the Iloilo City Police Office and the Iloilo Police Provincial Office.
The closure was a result of a July tax surveillance sought by the BIR 11 revenue district officer for Iloilo City, Lilivic Gatdola.
“We found big understatement in sales,” said Olasiman.
The New Ginzu Merchandising management was told to make rectifications and pay the corresponding tax.
However, despite the five-day notice, New Ginzu Merchandising still failed to do these, said Olasiman.
The establishment’s tax declaration was at least 30 percent short of the correct sales, said Olasiman but he declined to say the exact amount of tax deficiency.
“Our investigators collated the actual sales for each day over a 10-day period, and arrived at an average sales for each month. They found out na malaking ang understatement ng sales,” he said.
If New Ginzu Merchandising pays the tax deficiency, the closure order would be lifted, said Olasiman./PN
