BIG TIME TAX EVADERS... YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!!!

BIG TIME TAX EVADERS... YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED!!!
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A tax evasion complaint was filed against a pawnshop chain owner who supposedly failed to file income tax returns for seven years despite allegedly being able to buy a luxury sportscar worth P26 million in 2007.

The criminal complaint — the first tax evasion case under President Benigno Aquino III’s administration — was filed by revenue officials Thursday at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

William Villarica, owner of five Villarica Pawnshop branches, is accused of failing to file income tax returns from 2002 to 2009, according to the charge sheet filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the country’s second-largest revenue agency.

The complaint claims that Villarica violated Sections 254 and 255 of the National Revenue Code of 1997.

If proven guilty, Villarica will be imprisoned for not more than 10 years.

Investigation by the BIR also showed that Villarica only paid P25,607.25 in taxes from 1998 to 2009.

In 2007, Villarica supposedly bought a P26-million Lamborghini sports car, the only year he filed an income tax return.

That same year, he claimed that he had zero income.

"If he has accumulated P30 million in assets, he must be making at least a million or two every year,' BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares said at a press briefing after the complaint was filed at the DOJ office in Manila.

Villarica owns several other sports cars, Henares added.

For his part, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, who joined Henares during the briefing, said that "[i]t can't be business as usual."

The Justice Department will conduct a preliminary investigation on the matter. If it finds probable cause, it will file a case before the proper court.

For her part, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said that the public could expect the Finance Department and the Bureau of Internal Revenue to intensify efforts against tax evaders.

Also, she said the Bureau of Customs under the new administration is expected to file a case next week against a high-profile smuggler.

"This will be the beginning of a series of successive filing of cases of anti-smuggling and anti-tax evasion. As you know, one of the priorities is to intensify anti-smuggling and anti-tax evasion, and one best way is to intensify and maximize the filing of cases," said De Lima.

Henares also submitted to De Lima a list of names of possible tax evaders whose cases have been pending at the Justice Department even before De Lima was appointed as justice secretary.

The list includes names of high-profile personalities and celebrities, said De Lima. — Sophia Dedace/LBG/RJAB Jr./VS, GMANews.TV