THE Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) ruled in favor of taxpayers in disputed tax cases worth over P6.2 billion in 2017, the Supreme Court said.
In its Judiciary Annual Report 2017, the SC said cases ruled in favor of taxpayers involved disputed liabilities of P6,229,407,073.01.
Awards to the government, meanwhile, were worth a combined P5,435,153,153.53.
The awards include P2.28 billion in successful refund claims, while denied claims amounted to P1.46 billion.
Assessments against taxpayers that were upheld amounted to P3.97 billion, slightly higher than the P3.95 billion worth of cancelled assessments.
Sought for comment, Lina P. Figueroa, a tax principal at P&A (Punongbayan & Araullo) Grant Thorton, said the rulings were not economically significant.
“It shouldn’t affect the normal goings-on of the economy because CTA cases are decided on a regular basis so it’s not unusual,” she said.
She also said rulings in favor of taxpayers are understandable as such petitioners will have assessed their cases thoroughly before filing claims with the CTA.
“You don’t go to the CTA if you think you have a weak case because the CTA decides on the basis of documents, facts and the law. The CTA really scrutinizes the cases,” Ms. Figueroa added.
She added the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) typically has “little time to go over these documents.”
Under the tax code, the BIR Commissioner has 120 days to grant a claim for refund or issue a tax credit certificate for creditable input taxes. If the claim for refund was fully or partially denied or not acted upon by the Commissioner, the taxpayer may bring the case to CTA within 30 days. — Vann Marlo N. Villegas
