Saturday, November 05, 2005
Trader pleads for relief after overpaying CH P1.8M in taxes
A businessman, who overpaid P1.21 million in real property taxes, is asking the Cebu City Government that the tax assessment of his 53-year-old warehouse in Barangay Tinago be reduced.
Tereso Tan said he found the assessment of P1.83 million too high for an old warehouse, whose value has greatly depreciated since it was completed and occupied in 1952.
Tan then wrote Acting City Treasurer Tessie Camarillo and told her that in 1989, the building was assessed at P393,980 only.
“But...in 1994, the assessed value of the building rose astronomically to P1.68 million or an increase of 427 percent,” Tan’s letter read.
He said he did not know about the increase in the assessment until his bookkeeper resigned. Tan also did not receive any notice of assessment, much less his copies of the tax declaration of his properties.
Unfair
“I am very much willing to pay the correct amount of realty taxes due on my warehouse, but not its present assessment of P1.83 million, which is grossly unfair, if not confiscatory. Leasing of warehouses these days is not as profitable as before the financial crisis of 1997,” Tan said.
The local Board of Assessment Appeals, following another evaluation last March, ordered that the value of Tan’s warehouse be reduced from P1.83 million to P623,100.
But the board washes its hands of Tan’s request that his overpayment of realty taxes be corrected and credited in his tax dues effective 1994, instead of 2001.
The board said last Aug. 25 that Tan should address his request to the City Council, because granting “a tax credit in his favor” is not under their jurisdiction.
Resolution
Tan then wrote Vice Mayor Michael Rama through Councilor Hilario Davide III, who will sponsor a resolution covering the businessman’s request.
Davide’s proposed resolution will be discussed by the council on Wednesday.
According to an inspection report signed by City Tax Mapper IV Cesar Concon, it was found that the property was highly depreciated. Concon said the depreciation allowance of 14 percent be adjusted to 49 percent, commensurate to the age of the warehouse, which was 48 years in 2000.
He said the area of the warehouse should also be corrected from 1,456.76 square meters to only 1,012 square meters, because there is only one office inside the warehouse, not two. (GAC)
(November 5, 2005 issue)
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