Prosecution probes Coronas’ ITRs

MANILA, Philippines – Chief Justice Renato Corona filed his income tax return (ITR) through an “alphalist” while wife, Cristina, was a “one-time taxpayer”, according to Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares in her testimony before the Senate, acting as an impeachment court, at the resumption of Corona’s trial Wednesday.

Henares’ testimony came after the Senate ruled that the prosecution could present evidence concerning the multimillion-peso properties he had acquired during his stint as a court official but not on allegations that he had amassed ill-gotten wealth as contained in separate paragraphs in Article 2 of the Eight Articles of Impeachment that have been levelled against the Chief Justice.

At the start of her testimony, Henares testified that although Corona did not have a record of having fileincome tax returns (ITR) before the BIR from 2002 to 2010 through the usual process, he did so via the alphalist, which contains the names of employees, Corona included, income and amount withheld and filed before the BIR.

“He [Corona] did not file any income tax returns for tax year 2002 to 2010,” Henares said, responding to a question from private prosecutor Arthur Lim, who was conducting a direct examination of the witness.

But Henares said that through the alphalist, the Chief Justice declared the following: A gross income of P657, 755.57 and P176,577.32  tax paid in 2010; income of P621, 528.62 and withholding tax of P155,556.20 in 2009; gross income of P604,388.46 and P154,057.75 in 2008; gross income of P488, 156.57 and withholding tax of P117, 399.31 in 2007; and a total income of P465, 156.57 and withholding tax of P109,706 in 2006.

The BIR has no tax records of the Chief Justice from 2002 to 2005 even in the alphalist that was submitted annually by the Supreme Court, said Henares.

Senator Ralph Recto, who sits as one of the judge in the trial, clarified that the non-filing of the ITR by Corona did not mean that he did not pay his taxes.

“Hindi nangangahulugan na hindi s’ya [Corona] nagbayad dahil trabaho ng Supreme Court ang kumaltas at magremit sa BIR [This doesn’t mean that he didn’t pay because it is the work of the Supreme Court to deduct and remit to the BIR]. Tama ho ba iyon [Is that right]?” Recto asked.

“Tama ho iyon [That is correct],” said the BIR chief.

“To be fair, Mr. President, hindi nangangahulugan na kailangan siyang magkaroon ng income tax return kung wala naman siyang [this doesn’t mean that he should have an income tax return because he doesn’t have an] income tax return,” Recto said.

Continue reading about this Philippines Current Events...