BIR warns candidates of possible tax probe

The Bureau of Internal Revenue would not hesitate to probe the candidates of the recently conducted elections for tax violations—whether they won or lost, Commissioner Kim Henares said Thursday. In an interview with reporters, Henares said the BIR would be reviewing the Statement of Expenditures that the candidates for the 2013 elections would be filing with the Commission on Elections, as well as the amount of donations they received for their respective poll campaigns. "After looking at that, if there is something out of the ordinary or off-tangent then we go to further investigation," said Henares. Henares said she wanted to presume that the all winning candidates would be filing these documents, especially since the Comelec had said that it would not allow winners to assume their posts without complying with that requirement. "I hope the Comelec sticks to its position," Henares said. She said the BIR would also review documents to be submitted by media organizations to determine the amount of space or airtime they aold for election campaigns, and check them against candidates' campaign expenditures on their disbursement reports "We would also check whether the candidates registered themselves to the BIR and whether they printed receipts or got receipts from us," she said. Henares declared there would be no sacred cows in their tax investigations, stressing that the agency is not a "political office" and that the results of their probe would solely be based on evidence. Henares appealed to the candidates to file before the deadline all the necessary election campaign documents that they have to submit to the government. "I hope that they would comply with the rules and regulations that we have published before the election period. For as long as everyone follows it there should be no problem," Henares said. Henares had earlier said that Revenue Regulations No. 8-2009 cites a general rule under the Omnibus Election Code saying that campaign contributions are exempted from donor's tax provided they be spent campaign purposes only, otherwise it would be subjected to tax. According to the BIR, the Election Code also provides that all campaign contributions not listed in a candidate's Statement of Expenditures would be subjected to tax, and when not declared in his or her income tax return is considered tax evasion. — BM, GMA News