Rappler faces tax evasion rap from BIR

FILE: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revoked the registration of news organization Rappler for violating constitutional restrictions that prohibit foreign ownership of mass media. (PCOO photo)

News media outlet Rappler’s parent company Rappler Holdings Corporation (RHC) is facing a tax evasion complaint filed on March 8 by the Bureau of International Revenue (BIR) before the Department of Justice (DOJ).

BIR in its complaint alleged that RHC through its president Maria Ressa and treasurer James Bitanga willfully attempted to evade paying taxes.

The complaint also read that they were inaccurate in the figures in their income tax and value-added tax (VAT) returns in 2015.

RG Manabat & Company accountant Noel Baladiang is also facing a criminal complaint “for signing and certifying the financial statement of RHC despite the clear omission and misstatement of his client.”

“As a consequence of its acts and omissions, the aggregate tax liability of [Rappler] amounted to P133,841,305.75 broken down as follows IT – P91,320,481.08; and VAT – P42,520,824.67,” the complaint read.

BIR added that Rappler violated Sections 253(d) and 256 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.

In Rappler’s article, Ressa stated that BIR’s complaint is “ludicrous,” urging the agency to “check its own records.”

“This is clear intimidation and harassment. The government is wasting its energy and resources in an attempt to silence reporting that does not please the administration,” she added.

BIR’s complaint is an addition to the many complaints that Rappler is facing, after President Rodrigo Roa Duterte accused it of being funded by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) voided Rappler’s license to operate for allegedly violating the law banning foreign ownership of media outlets. Rappler has contested this by saying that Omidyar Network who bought Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs) from Rappler Incorporated has not foreign control over them.

However, this ruling of the SEC is not yet final and executory.

Apart from the SEC and the BIR, Rappler is also facing raps from the Office of the Solicitor General, the DOJ, and the National Bureau of Investigation.