Auto Repair Shop charged with willful failure to pay long overdue taxes

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The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) today filed a criminal complaint with the Department of Justice against AUTOHUB, INC. (AI) for willful failure to pay taxes for taxable year 2007, in violation of Section 255 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended (Tax Code).

AI is a domestic corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for the primary purpose of maintenance and repairs of cars, motorcycles, and all types of land transportation vehicles and operates at No. 3 St. Mary’s St., Paradise Village, Project 8, Quezon City.

Likewise charged were JEROME M. LAPUZ and THERESA A. LAPUZ as President and Treasurer of AI, respectively.

The charges against AI and its responsible corporate officers stemmed from their willful failure to pay deficiency taxes for taxable year 2007 in the aggregate amount of P1.32 million, inclusive of surcharges and interests, broken down into Income Tax – P0.69 million; Value Added Tax – P0.59 million; Improperly Accumulated Earnings Tax – P0.04 million; and Annual Registration Fee – P1,001.16.

BIR records of investigation showed that in spite of the service and receipt of the requisite notices and Subpoena Duces Tecum, AI failed to present its books of accounts and other related accounting records for taxable year 2007. Subsequently, the BIR issued the corresponding Preliminary Assessment Notice (PAN) and Final Assessment Notice (FAN) which AI failed to protest, hence making the said assessments final, executory, unappealable and demandable.

The subsequent issuance of the Preliminary Collection Notice, Final Notice Before Seizure, Warrant of Distraint and/or Levy, and Warrant of Garnishment by the BIR proved futile as the subject taxpayer still failed to settle its tax liabilities. A Demand Before Suit likewise proved useless as the said tax liabilities of AI remained unsettled.

Despite such fact of finality and the exhaustion of administrative remedies, AI and its corporate officers still failed to pay the deficiency taxes due.

The case against AUTOHUB, INC., its President JEROME M. LAPUZ and Treasurer THERESA A. LAPUZ is the 198th filed under the Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program of the BIR under the leadership of Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares. It is likewise a RATE case of Revenue Region No. 7, Quezon City.