CTA rejects tax refund petition

By Jun Ramirez 

The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has dismissed the tax refund claim of a Cavite-based real estate firm for hastily filing the petition.

Court of Tax Appeals (MANILA BULLETIN)

In a 15-page resolution, the court’s Second Division stated that Axeia Development Corporation did not exhaust all administrative remedies with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) before bringing the case to CTA.

Thus, the court said it had not acquired jurisdiction over the case.

The court explained that under Section 229 of the Tax Code a taxpayer is required to wait for the final decision of the commissioner of internal revenue (CIR) before elevating it to the CTA.

Likewise it said the taxpayer may bring the case to the CTA if the CIR did not act on it within 180 days upon the submission of the petition and complete supporting documents.

Records showed the realty company paid in protest P3.8 million out of the more than P10 million deficiency assessments covering income, value-added, expanded withholding and documentary stamp taxes for the whole of 2014.

Axeia wanted to get back the P3.8 million claiming the payment was erroneous.

The court noted that deficiency tax assessment made by the regional office is not yet final and may still be appealed with the CIR.

It added assessments are just mere computation of the deficiency taxes and have not yet attained fanality and may still be administratively protested with the CIR as stipulated in the guidelines implementing the provision of the Tax Code.