Lifestyle monitors ferret out Philippine tax cheats
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On slow days Philippine tax investigators say they comb through the obituary pages and stacks of sales invoices. On other days they get lucky and get to track the infrequent Porsche or Ferrari.
The poorly paid accountants and lawyers are the unlikely shock troops of President Aquino’s anti-corruption campaign, exposing to public shame those accused of cheating the government out of billions of dollars in taxes.
Rewards are few and the threat to life and limb is ever-present, but the “Run Against Tax Evaders” team of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is fuelled by civic duty, said its chief prosecutor Claro Ortiz.
“It’s very exhausting and very dangerous because, you know, we tend to run after big names and big people. There is, of course some sort of risk,” he said.
His 28-member special team of lawyers is currently handling 155 cases, including that of a pawnbroker who imported a half million-dollar Lamborghini even though he had paid just $600 in taxes in the past 10 years.
A luxury car dealer is also in trouble for allegedly cheating the government out of P68.4 million ($1.52 million) in duties for a fleet of Lamborghini, Porsche, Mercedes Benz and Maserati imports..... MORESource: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100913com3.html
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