Huwebes, Hunyo 7, 2012

HOW TO ROB PUBLIC FUNDS IN THE PHILIPPINES


By MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

A top government official told me how an assessor of a town or city fleece a taxpayer (seller or buyer of a real property) who asked for the certification of a real property’s classification.
The classifications are residential, agricultural, and commercial.

He explained that the government lose a huge amount of taxes that runs to thousands if not millions of pesos because a P30 thousand per square meter (PSM) of real property (land and/or building) will become P10 thousand PSM only for just a stroke of a pen by a corrupt assessor .
Then the certification will be presented by the taxpayer to the examiner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who will compute the valuation of the real property by the assessor for the capital gain tax (CGT).
An insider at the BIR told me it is laudable if the examiner (considered as” god” to whom smart aleck taxpayers ingratiate) got the right valuation of the assessor as suspect especially after he (examiner) makes an ocular inspection to see the real location of the property.
“The problem if he does not go there to check and instead fleece the grateful taxpayer,” he said.
***
A revenue district officer who was assigned to a district office in Pangasinan told me long ago that she was shocked seeing her examiners giving her a smaller computation of taxes a taxpayer should be paying the government.
“I asked them to instead re-compute it with a reasonable higher tax,” she said.
Corruption at the Assessor and the BIR do not end until the taxpayer set his foot at the graft-ridden Register of Deeds.
A taxpayer goes there inquiring how to transfer the ownership of his land (sale, donation, estate) or how the process of transfer starts.
“Fixers or personnel at the Register of Deeds ask them to shell an amount without an O.R (official receipt) for them to expedite the transfer of the land.”
***
Another modus there is before the taxpayer pays the CGT at the BIR, fixers there sweet talk the taxpayer that they (fixers) can intercede on their behalf by paying less CGT at the BIR because of their connection there.
My source told me it is swindling at its best at the RD.
“Magaling silang mag-compute ng Capital Gain Tax and Documentary Tax. Parang taga- BIR din.”
He said the come-on is the P100 thousand tax he pays to the BIR can be reduced to P50 thousand in the CAR (Certificate Authorizing Registration where CGT and Documentary Tax are written).
But here is the rub: The CGT is a fake. The taxes do not go to the BIR but to the pockets of some corrupt people at the RD.
In case this shenanigan is exposed; the head of the RD will just lie through his teeth that he has knowledge of it. He would even tell investigators, tongue in cheek, that he did not know the CAR is fake as it looks like the original.
“Pero kunwari lang niya iyon, dahil siya mismo may porsiento doon sa mga fake CARs na pinipirmahan niya (It was a pretension because the head of RD conspired too for a gain for that fake CARs )”.
He said the proliferation of bogus CARs is endemic all over the country.
The series of tips of my source is quite believable. You go to these corrupt government offices and you see top officials there riding big time in their latest model gas- guzzling SUVs that cost millions of pesos.
Now you ask me: How can these sons of guns afford it when their salary is less than P50 thousand a month?
***
You can read my previous articles on fake CARs and alleged corrupt RD officials by accessing the following links:
http://northwatch.wordpress.com/2011/10/03/bir-exposes-anomalies-at-register-of-deeds-pangasinan/
http://northwatch.wordpress.com/2012/04/04/ortigoza-media-man-cum-swindler/
http://wwwmortzcortigoza.blogspot.com/2011/11/home-contact-us-editorial-board-accused.html
(You can read my selected intriguing but thought-provoking columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com).

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