Pimentel wants BIR probed over ‘failure’ to collect Marcos family estate tax

Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III filed a resolution calling for a Senate inquiry into the Bureau of Internal Revenue's (BIR's) alleged "failure" to collect the multi-billion estate tax dues of the Marcos family.

"There is an urgent and pressing need for the Senate to look into the reasons and BIR officials, past and present, who are responsible why the government, after almost 25 years, has failed to collect on these amounts which have already been adjudged with finality to be due and demandable against the heirs of Ferdinand E. Marcos," Pimentel wrote in Proposed Senate Resolution 998 filed last March 28.

"Therefore, be it resolved by the Senate of the Philippines, as it is hereby resolved, to direct the proper Senate committee to conduct an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the failure of the BIR to collect on the estate tax monies due on the estate of Ferdinand E. Marcos since 1997 and identify the BIR officials, past and present, responsible therefor," he added.

The senator cited the 1997 Supreme Court Decision affirming the decision of the Court of Appeals which held that the deficiency income tax assessments and estate tax assessments were already final and appealable.

"Marcos II vs. Court of Appeals has long become final and executory and thus, by the legal principle of res judicata, can no longer be questioned and hence should be fully implemented and executed," Pimentel, a lawyer, explained.

He then pointed out that the Filipino people were suffering from the effects of a recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukraine war.

With this situation, Pimentel noted the funding needs of the P200 per month ayuda of the government as well as the Department of Labor and Employment's proposed wage subsidy amounting to P24 billion for the benefit of around one million minimum wage workers.

"There is no clear funding source for these proposed subsidies and it is immediately obvious that the government would be hard-pressed to source the much-needed funds in order to support these social alleviation measures," he said.

"The payment of the estate tax liability amounting to more or less P203.819 billion on the part of the heirs of Ferdinand E. Marcos in favor of the government, as it has ll the right to do so, would be more than enough to fund these proposed subsidies," he added.

Earlier, the BIR said it had sent a written demand to the Marcoses regarding their tax liabilities amounting to P203.819 billion last year.

On March 30, the Department of Finance said the BIR continued to demand that the Marcos family settle their estate tax debt.

However, Senator Imee Marcos claimed that her family had not received any communication from the BIR.

Documents from the Supreme Court showed that the assessment of multi-billion estate taxes already became final and executory in 1999. — DVM, GMA News