BIR exec guilty in tax fraud probe

BAGUIO CITY– A revenue district officer in Mt. Province was sentenced to six to 13 years in jail for sitting on a tax fraud investigation for three years.

A court ruling said Revenue district officer Peter George Caburao delayed a capital gains tax probe in 1999 when he was still the assistant chief of the Special Investigation Division of the Bureau of the Internal Revenue’s regional office here.

Judge Fernando Vil Pamintuan of Regional Trial Court Branch 3, in his ruling Oct. 8, found Caburao guilty of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Caburao was also disqualified from holding public office and ordered to pay P80,161.07 in actual damages, including legal interest, from 1999 up to the present and the costs of the suit.

Pamintuan denied Caburao’s petition for bail, too. Caburao said the court erred in singling him out because “I am not the BIR.”

He said the delay in the probe was not his own making, adding that he was only an assistant in the Special Investigation Division then.

Caburao said the complaint for tax fraud was investigated for 33 days, way below the 120-day period that BIR probes are to be undertaken.

The case stemmed from the complaint of Frederick Farres who, together with his wife, purchased a P1.8-million property from Benito and Lydia Areola in 1999.

As part of the purchase deal, it was agreed that the Areolas would pay the capital gains tax for the property.

However, it was made to appear that Farres only paid P500,000 to the Areolas who were acting in behalf of a certain Herman Caligtan, owner of the property and evaded the payment of the proper capital gains tax.

Farres filed a case with the BIR central office against the Areolas for tax fraud but for more than three years, nothing came out of the investigation.

He then decided to file a denunciation letter on the BIR’s inaction.

Pamintuan gave weight to documentary evidence showing that it took three years for Caburao as BIR investigator to conclude his probe, submitting a formal report only in January 2002 despite numerous follow-ups from Farres.

Pamintuan also berated Caburao, saying decisions on capital gains tax cases could be released within a day from the filing of the complaints since investigators only had to consult the official table of capital gains taxes and the duly notarized deed of sale.

“Caburao caused undue injury to the government through gross inexcusable negligence, for unreasonably delaying the investigation of the tax evasion case of spouses Benito and Lydia Areola, to the damage and injury of the government,” the court said.

Caburao said he would appeal the court’s decision.