City to Run After ‘Tax Evaders’

Tax evaders in Cebu City beware.

Mayor Michael Rama has created a group tasked to run after businesses and individuals who are not declaring their true income and to initiate legal moves in court against the violators.

The mayor also hinted he want the City Treasurer’s Office to open the books of these businesses or individuals if he has to.

Rama had already informed the Office of the President about his Executive Order No. 15-10 dated on May 19, 2015. The mayor wants to increase the revenue collection of Cebu City to support this year’s annual budget amounting to P13.8 billion.

He appointed City Administrator Lucelle Mercado and City Legal Officer Jerone Castillo to be the chairwoman and vice chairman, respectively, of the Task Force for Revenue Enhancement and Maximization.

The members are composed of Rama’s executive assistant Jose Daluz III, lawyers June Maratas and Mary Rose Salvatierra of the City Legal Office, architect Florante Catalan of the Office of the Building Officials, City Treasurer Diwa Cuevas, Budget Officer Marietta Gumia and City Assessor Liezel Gonzaga.

For the past few years, the city’s tax collections failed to reach the set target despite the mushrooming of commercial buildings and the establishment of new businesses in different parts of the city. This gave rise to speculations some businessmen are manipulating their records to avoid or lessen the taxes they have to pay the city.

Rama said there is a need for the city government to immediately address this serious concern.

Among the tasks of the group is to “examine any book, paper, record or other data in the custody of the city government, which maybe relevant or material as basis of tax assessments and determination of any misdeclaration of income.”

The task force can also summon any City Hall official in custody of books of account, accounting records and other relevant entries relating to the business of the person liable for the payment of tax. They can also take the testimonies of the concerned city officials or employees who are relevant to the inquiry.

If the task force has reason to believe that a concerned business is not declaring its true income, the task force can require certain City Hall department to conduct an actual inspection of the firm.

Under the law, the local government unit through, the personnel of the City Treasurer’s Office, is empowered to inspect the books of account of certain establishments if they believed it is not declaring true revenues.

During the past years, it was found during a tax mapping that only one in every four establishments in Cebu City was paying the right taxes, the rest either operated without paying taxes or just paid a little tax after declaring a “doctored” gross revenue.

Rama said a business executive told him that Cebu City is worth P20 billion in taxes, which is why he is wondering why the city’s tax collectors only raised a little over P4 billion in revenue last year.