SEN. JV EJERCITO/ FACEBOOK
Senator JV Ejercito on Thursday outlined before the Senate blue ribbon committee several alleged schemes by erring Bureau of Internal Revenue personnel involving the misuse of letters of authority.
He said his office received reports showing that some taxpayers were issued multiple LOAs within the same year or across consecutive years.
One case involved a Quezon City business owner who was given four separate LOAs in just six months.
Ejercito also cited a taxpayer in Laoag who received four LOAs covering two small businesses — a mini-grocery and an eatery.
He said the second taxpayer was a typical small entrepreneur supporting a family of five who even took out a bank loan just to settle with the BIR.
The senator added that other complaints involved inflated assessments that allegedly had no factual or documentary basis.
In one instance, a Manila-based examiner supposedly demanded ₱400,000 to “fix” an LOA and, after being refused, issued a tax assessment amounting to ₱13 million.
Ejercito said this was questionable because the business reported gross sales of only ₱12 million, yet the assessment exceeded the actual revenue.
Another scheme, he added, involved what complainants called “extortion disguised as compromise,” where taxpayers were asked for side payments in exchange for lower deficiency assessments.
He said these reports prompted the Department of Finance (DOF) to suspend all BIR field audits and related enforcement activities pending further review.