By Benjamin Pulta
MANILA – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Wednesday filed tax evasion charges against contractor couple Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya II and Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya in connection with PHP7.18 billion in tax liabilities of St. Gerrard Construction Gen. Contractor & Development Corporation.
“Today, the BIR will file multiple tax charges against the spouses Discaya and their Corporate Officer. This is composed of several investigations on the unpaid individual income taxes of Curlee and Sarah Discaya, the unpaid excise taxes on their nine luxury vehicles, and the unpaid documentary stamp taxes on their supposed divestment from four of Discaya-owned construction firms,” BIR Commissioner Romeao Lumagui Jr. said in a statement.
The BIR found that the Discayas failed to pay billions in income taxes for taxable years 2018 to 2021.
Lumagui said the charges are “merely the tip of the iceberg” as the cases focused more on individual tax liabilities of the Discaya couple.
“Once we have finished our audit of the Discaya-owned construction firms, we expect findings of billions of tax deficiencies. We will file more tax evasion cases as soon as we have all the information we need,” he said.
The next case involves their failure to file a documentary stamp tax return and pay documentary stamp taxes, the BIR said.
According to the General Information Sheets of four Discaya-owned construction firms, they have made several transfers/disposals of shares of stocks from such companies.
They also claimed to have divested from such companies during the legislative hearings on flood control projects, but failed to file a documentary stamp tax return and pay the documentary stamp tax to properly execute such transfers of shares.
“The spouses Discaya never divested from St. Gerrard, St. Timothy, St. Matthew, and Alpha & Omega. The BIR has no record of any return or payment for such divestment, particularly that of documentary stamp taxes,” Lumagui said.
“They never divested because they never paid the corresponding taxes necessary for such divestment.”
The BIR also discovered that the couple also failed to file the excise tax returns and pay the excise taxes of nine luxury vehicles registered under their names per the records of the Land Transportation Office.
Lumagui said the BIR will continue its audit of Discaya-owned construction firms.
If the BIR discovers more taxes that have not been paid, he said they will continue to file tax charges.
The same is true for other contractors and public officials involved in anomalous flood control projects, Lumagui said.
“Curlee and Sarah Discaya are guilty of not paying their taxes. They failed to pay proper income taxes, excise taxes, even documentary stamp taxes. Expect more cases to be filed. The BIR will make sure that the spouses Discaya and their corporate officers will be imprisoned for violating our tax laws,” Lumagui said. (PNA)
