THE Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has ruled to allow a refund of P986.4 million, part of the amount sought by SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) for 2013.
In a 28-page amended decision dated Nov. 18, the court’s special second division partially granted the petition of SM Investments but increased the amount for refund.
The court in a March 4 decision only allowed the refund of P179.3 million out of the P1.17 billion excess creditable withholding tax claimed by SMIC for 2013.
The court said in its amended decision that SMIC had adequately explained its entitlement to a further P807.1 million refund.
“(P)etitioner has completely explained and proven that the corresponding income payment/gain of the CWT amounting to P807,070,650.00 was reported in its Annual ITR (income tax revenue) for 2013,” according to the decision.
“Clearly from the foregoing, SMIC established compliance with the requisite that the income upon which the taxes were withheld should be included in the return of the recipient, but only up to the extent of P807,070,650.00 with related gross income of P16,141,413,000.00, representing the property swap with SM Prime Holdings, Inc. which was accounted for using the pooling of interest method,” it added.
The court upheld the disallowance of the rest of the claims due to “failure to properly substantiate the same.”
It also denied a motion for reconsideration filed by the Bureau of Internal Revenue. — Vann Marlo M. Villegas
