BIR witness confirms issuance of LOA to Mans Carpio's CALE88

Make this your preferred source to get more updates from this publisher on Google.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has issued a letter of authority (LOA) for Cale88 Foods Corporation, one of the listed business interests of lawyer Manases Carpio, husband of Vice President Sara Duterte.

This was confirmed by BIR Office of the Commissioner chief of staff Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia-Marquez on the 37th day of the impeachment trial, where the Vice President’s alleged unexplained wealth was being scrutinized.

During his interjection, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian pointed out the discrepancy between the declared sales of CALE88 to BIR amounting to P208 million, and its remittances worth P700 million as found by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

The witness explained that inflows may be loans or any kind of donations, but emphasized that the company should still declare such funds in the financial statements.

“This should have been declared in the audited financial statement dahil…nandito lahat ng cash flow statement wherein dapat lahat ng galaw ng cash ng isang company ay nakalagay. So any inflow na na-receive ng company should've been declared in the audited financial statement,” Garcia-Marquez explained.

(This should have been declared in the audited financial statements because… the cash flow statement is in here, reflecting all of the company’s cash movements. So, any inflow received by the company should have been declared in the audited financial statement.)

“As to those na outside or hindi na-declare sa audited financial statement, maraming pong possibilities but hindi ko masasabi, Your Honor,” she added.

(As for those that are outside or not declared in the audited financial statements, there are many possibilities, which I cannot say for sure, Your Honor.)

Gatchalian then asked Garcia-Marquez if such a scenario would make CALE88 a candidate for the issuance of a LOA from the BIR.

“In fact, Your Honor, meron na pong letter of authority,” the witness answered.

Gatchalian clarified, “Ah, so meron na nga siyang letter of authority, so iniimbestigahan na itong company na ito?”

(So it already has a letter of authority, meaning this company is already being investigated?)

The BIR official answered in the affirmative.

The Senate President asked about possible penalties if a company is found not declaring sales.

“Under declaration po ng sales, magko-compute po tayo dito ng deficiency taxes. Meron po kasing civil and merong criminal cases. So sa civil, dito pumapasok ‘yung mga deficiency taxes na dapat bayaran. At kapag napatunayan na may tax evasion man, then dito papasok ang sa criminal case,” Garcia-Marquez said.

(Regarding the declaration of sales, we will compute the deficiency taxes here. We have civil and criminal cases. Civil cases cover the deficiency taxes that must be paid, while criminal cases come into play if tax evasion is proven.)

During Thursday’s trial, the BIR official said the agency found no records of the transfer of shares of stock of Cale88 to Pikimong Pikimong Corporation.

Cale88 is one of the business interests listed under the joint Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of Duterte and her husband in multiple years, including the years when the Vice President already assumed office. —AOL, GMA News