BIR sues 96 buyers of ‘ghost receipts’ used to defraud gov’t of P1.41B in taxes
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Thursday filed multiple criminal complaints against 96 buyers of “ghost receipts” that were used in fraudulent transactions and cost the government P1.41 billion in taxes.
A total of 23 corporations, 56 corporate officers and 17 certified public accountants are facing complaints before the Department of Justice (DOJ) for various violations, including tax evasion, failure to supply correct and accurate information, perjury and false reporting in relation to the ghost receipts, BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. said in a press briefing.
The charged individuals and corporations come from various industries such as construction, manufacturing, food, electronics, entertainment, marketing and retail.
They are accused of making multiple suspicious purchases from “ghost” companies that exist only on paper—without actual business operations, employees or tangible assets.
According to Lumagui, the BIR had previously filed separate complaints against the ghost corporations. He said these were put up and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission although they serve no legitimate purpose but to sell receipts.
“From there, we also looked into who was using the receipts from these confirmed ghost companies. So everyone who used these receipts, these are the ones we have filed cases against,” he added.
Padded expenses
Elaborating on the scheme, Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres said the buyers of the ghost receipts used these to pad their expenses against gross revenue and reduce their tax liabilities.
“So the tax liability will be less but the supporting receipts for the expenses are the fraudulent or fake receipts coming from these companies that [were] just put up for the purpose of supplying these fraudulent expense receipts,” he explained.
Asked how the BIR was able to detect the tax evasion, Lumagui said they used third-party information to determine the actual earnings of the companies and compared this to the income reported to the bureau, along with the taxes they paid.
“Usually, content creators don’t report anything at all, even though we have proof that they’re earning income through social media platforms,” he added.
Andres said that following the filing of the complaint, the DOJ will proceed with evaluating the submitted documents.
“As you know, we are undergoing the normal case buildup to ascertain that there is sufficient documentary evidence and other supporting documents to build a strong case against all of these individual respondents in the case,” he said.
