Pagcor food concessionaire charged with tax evasion

A COMPANY selling Chinese food to state-run Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) was slapped with tax evasion worth P41.41 million before the Department of Justice on Thursday.

Under fire is Lilia Gonzales, owner of Yasiok Dimsum Food House, whose case stemmed from a preliminary investigation conducted by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on her alleged perpetration of tax evasion schemes.

The revenue agency obtained a certification from the general manager of Pagcor Airport Casino Filipino confirming that Yasiok (Gonzales) received income payments from the state gaming firm amounting to P39.95 million (P25.51 million – 2008 and P14.44 million – 2010).

Gonzales, however, failed to declare said income from Pagcor after failing to file her income tax returns (ITR) with the BIR for the said years.

This resulted in the non-payment of her income tax in the aggregate amount of P25.61 million, inclusive of surcharges and interest, broken down as follows: 2008 – P17.54 million and 2010 – P8.07 million.

BIR records also showed Gonzales had substantially underdeclared her sales in her value added tax (VAT) returns by P24.02 million, P24.3 million and P0.41 million for taxable years 2008, 2009 and first quarter of 2010, respectively.

For the last three quarters of 2010, she failed to file her tax returns which include P9.04 million in sales.

Gonzales was thus assessed a total tax deficiency in the sum of P15.8 million, including surcharges and interests, broken down as follows: 2008 – P6.56 million; 2009 – P6.05 million; and 2010 – P3.19 million. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)