The Bureau of Internal Revenue filed a P14.59 million tax evasion case against Benguet Electric Cooperative Inc. (Beneco) before the Department of Justice Thursday.


Beneco was charged with two counts of willful attempt to evade or defeat withholding and documentary stamp taxes (DST); two counts of deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information on tax returns; and one count of failure to withhold the correct amount of creditable withholding taxes (CWT).

Records show that the cooperative bought two parcels of land in Baguio city from Equitable PCI Bank, now known as Banco de Oro Unibank/BDO.

BIR said that the transaction was covered by a deed of absolute sale dated Dec. 2, 2009, which indicated a price of P85 million, on which P5.1 million worth of CWT and P1.28 million worth of DST were originally computed.

"Following a routine evaluation, additional CWT of P182,928 and DST of P45,810 were paid based on the zonal valuation of the properties pegged by the BIR at P88.05 million," the BIR said.

Documents obtained by the BIR, however, showed the selling price of the properties had been significantly underdeclared, with the papers showing the selling price of the properties was P183.45 million. Reposted from Malaya http://www.malaya.com.ph/june10/busi10.html