PRESIDENTIAL ASPIRANT Bongbong Marcos and many like-minded people must like what a former prominent American jurist once said about tax, which is one of the only two sure things in this life apart from death.
“I hate taxes,” former United States Supreme Court justice Oliver Wendel Holmes said, “But I love the civilization they give me.” Holmes, however, was no tax cheat or evader, if you will. His ponencia when he was an associate justice paved the way for the conviction of a notorious, even celebrity -like mobster in his time, Al Capone.
Because of his various illegal activities, Capone had hired the best tax lawyers in town to shield him from paying his taxes. His lawyers found a convenient legal argument to do this. They said the constitutional provision against self- incrimination guaranteed that. However, even self-confessed criminal, Holmes later said, must pay their taxes, even if their income were illegally obtained. They can claim deductions for illegal expenses, like bribery, alright but they have to pay their taxes by filing their income tax returns.
On the basis of Holmes legal opinion, Capone was sentenced to 11 years in jail
Here at home, former Supreme Court justice Antonio Carpio is urging the Bureau of Internal Revenue to adopt a Capone-like solution. Sue BBM for the P203 billion estate tax he and his family have not paid , or refused to, for the last 25 year or so since the death of his late dictator father. Collection letters will just be Mona Lisas: they just lie there and they die there.
Carpio isn’t just emphasizing the need to collect the taxes long overdue; he wants the administrators of the Marcos estate – Bongbong and his mom — punished as criminals for willful refusal to pay the taxes they’ re supposed to pay. Collection letters are supposed to be renewable every five years. The Supreme Court had ruled with finality in 1997 that the Marcoses should pay P23 billion in estate taxes. That means the BIR had sent them at least five collection letters – to no avail.
Under the law, according to Carpio, willful refusal to pay tax liabilities carries with it the penalty of no less than P10,000 in fine and no more than 10 years but no less than one year in imprisonment. Apparently, the Marcoses are not bothered by the law,or the consequences of defying it.
It is noteworthy that BBM had been convicted for tax evasion when he was a local government official – as vice governor and governor. He was sentenced with a fine by the Court of Appeals but not with the imprisonment penalty, a case that remains a legal conundrum. Adding insult to injury was the f the allegation that BBM didn’t even pay the fine, although his camp said he did. Retired COMELEC Commissioner Rowena Guanzon had earlier voted to disqualify BBM as a presidential aspirant on the basis of his tax conviction amounting to moral turpitude. Her vote, however, was not officially recognized as such because it came earlier than the actual COMELEC favorable ruling for BBM which came out later – delayed on purpose Guanzon claimed.
BBM, however, is not yet off the hook. The COMELEC, en banc, will still rule on the pending appeal to disqualify him. Finally, whatever the COMELEC says, the case will go to the Supreme Court. But don’t hold your breath.
In the meantime, Carpio is appealing to the BIR’s sanity, if not logic. It has been sending collection letter after collection letter, to no avail. It’s time to take the next step, which is to file a criminal case already. In fact, Carpio describes it as the last step, for at least two reasons: 1) time is running out and 2) if BBM win as president, it might as well kiss the money goodbye.
As president, BBM will be already immune from suit, at least for the next six years. If he was good at avoiding or evading the estate taxes for a quarter of a century while he was not yet the king, how much better would he be when is sitting on the throne already?. Carpio has even repeatedly warned that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) might be abolished if BBM wins, a double whammy for the nation. And it’s not just a misgiving, a non sequitur, given what’s at stakes.
With less than two months to go, the window is closing on the BIR , and the nation, to make BBM take his tax obligation more seriously and pay up.
BBM has been avoiding the more confrontational public presidential debates, not because of lack of programs and policies of government or his intellectual capacity to address the more intelligent questions from both fellow candidates or debate panelists. The tax issues, his previous conviction and the unacted BIR demand letter to pay up theP203 billion, could be one plausible reason. He is in the lead right now, per survey after survey. Like a basketball team with a huge lead, he’s now just running the clock out, so to speak.
So, don’t expect BBM to show up in public debates that he think will be biased against him. It’s natural, instinctive. After all, even cockroaches avoid the spotlight.
Carpio has said BBM is already showing himself a bad example as a leader, not for making himself scarce in confrontational debates, but in continuously refusing to settle his family’ tax obligation to the government. Carpio’s equation is simple: If the president doesn’t pay taxes, citizens, even the good ones, will be tempted to do the same.
The BIR should do what the law says, not just as Carpio sees it, before the window of opportunity closes forever. Anything less will be a great disservice ,or great crime , to the Filipino people.
