Boxer Manny Pacquiao Bank Account Frozen, Politics?

Manila, Philippines - Manny Pacquiao easily beat Mexican-American Brandon Rios last Sunday in Macau, china but this time he has a more tougher opponent, the Philippines Tax Bureau or Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). All his bank accounts have been frozen by BIR due to a P2.2Billion (US$50,303,000) tax battle.

The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) gave Pacquiao a power punch to the face by freezing all his bank deposits. Money that he earned blood, sweat, and tears and not stolen. BIR are going after P2.2 billion Pacquiao allegedly owes the government in back taxes.

The Philippine government kept the freeze order out of public knowledge which is common in the Philippines since the government seems to have control over the media just like in North Korea despite being a democractic country.

Reports said the freeze order came after Pacquiao’s lawyers protested the BIR’s warrant of garnishment (WG) attaching his personal assets, including bank deposits.

The BIR normally issues WG to prevent delinquent taxpayers facing court suits from disposing his or her assets during the trial.

The case was due to Pacquiao’s accountant alleged failure to include in his income tax returns the million dollars taxes collected by the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from his prize winnings for the years 2008 to 2009.

BIR said that the tax debts have become “demandable,” “ executory” and “collectible” because the solon allegedly ignored to answer the final assessment notice (FAN) sent to him, which expired 30 days after receipt as provided in the Tax Code.

Revenue officials explained that as a Filipino citizen, Pacquiao is required to declare all his earnings, including from abroad, in his ITR.

Records showed the solon earned more than $28 million in prize money for successfully defending his various titles against Juan Manuel, David Rios, Oscar de la Hoja in 2008 and Ricky Hatton and Miguel Cotto in 2009.

Of the amount, the IRS collected $8.4 million, or roughly about P395 million.

Pacquiao declared that he did not include remittances to IRS in his returns due to the existing bilateral tax treaty agreement between Manila and Washington which stipulates that income tax paid by Filipinos in the US is creditable against his income tax liabilities here.

He added that what he remitted to the BIR was the value-added tax (VAT) amounting to P12 million to cover P114 million earnings from endorsing at least 14 products.

He argued that the BIR assessment has no legal force because it was based on “best obtainable sources”

Pacquiao said that BIR is ignoring the financial reports submitted by his promoter, Top Rank Promotions and other actual transaction documents, relying only on the so-called “best obtainable evidence rule.”