The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has turned down a suit by HR Mall Inc., a business processing outsourcing (BPO) arm of Ayala Corp. specializing in information and technology (IT)-related human resources services, that questioned a tax assessment amounting to more than PHP78 million for 2014.
In a decision on Nov. 12, the CTA Second Division said since HR Mall failed to question the tax assessment within 30 days from receipt of the final assessment notice, the court had rendered the assessment “final, executory, and demandable.”
The firm filed its supplemental protest against the tax assessment on Jan. 28, 2018, which was beyond the 30-day deadline from the time HR Mall received the valuation on Dec. 20, 2017.
“(A) tax assessment that has become final, executory and enforceable for failure of the taxpayer to assail the same …can no longer be contested. Petitioner is precluded from disputing the correctness of the assessment. As a corollary, since the subject assessment have become final and executory, petitioner may not anymore raise defenses which go into the merits of the assessments,” the CTA said.
Before the belated supplemental protest on January 28, the firm had filed a letter to the BIR on January 15 regarding its objection to the assessment, but failed to specify, as required, whether it is requesting a reconsideration of the tax assessment against it or a reinvestigation.
The CTA also said even under the January 15 letter where the firm requested that it be allowed to submit records against the BIR’s findings, there is no indication that it submitted all relevant supporting documents within 60 days from the filing of the letter.
Source: Philippines News Agency
