IN A BID to show that its campaign to hunt down tax dodgers packs a wallop, the Bureau of Internal Revenue seems to be angling for a bigger fight- this time with ring sensation Manny Pacquiao.
In an act worthy of a blockbuster, BIR Commissioner Guillermo Parayno last month wrote Pacquiao a letter, asking him to put his income tax records in order.
A week ago, Parayno said yesterday, he renewed his appeal to the boxer to set himself up as an example of a model taxpayer.
“Look, the offer stands … you may not have carefully prepared your income payments, so please review it,” Parayno recalled telling Pacquiao when the latter came to his office last week after returning from a US trip.
Parayno was referring to a letter he sent Pacquiao before the April 15 deadline for the filing of income taxes, telling the boxer that since he was idolized by millions of Filipinos, he could greatly help the BIR’s Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program by filing his taxes correctly.
“You can very well be a good endorser of good governance and we would like you to be a model of tax compliance. Come April 15, we want you to take the effort to declare your taxes properly,” Parayno said in his letter.
The BIR sent the letter before Pacquiao went to the United States to face an investigation by the US Internal Revenue Service, which is also going after him for alleged unpaid taxes for a recent fight there.
In the same way the BIR was helping show biz personalities “rectify” their tax papers, Parayno said the bureau was willing to do the same for Pacquiao, who had left it to his bookkeeper to file his income tax return month.
Reason he lost fight
He said Pacquiao recently filed a corrected income tax declaration and RATE agents were still going over it.
Parayno said the BIR decided to go after Pacquiao after hearing him say that he lost the fight with Mexican Eric Morales in March because he was bothered by his problems with the IRS.
“When he lost, he said he was not physically prepared, but the problem was he was not 100 percent mentally fit because he had problems with the IRS. So I said if he had a problem with the IRS, he may have a problem with us. So he better correct it,” Parayno said.
Pacquiao is said to have paid the IRS $565,000 after reportedly earning $650,000 from the fight with Morales.
But BIR sources said Pacquiao also had to account for his income from 41 other fights since 1995, as well as product endorsements.
Pacquiao is a product endorser for Talk ‘N Text and Smart cellular phone, Alaxan, Surf laundry soap, Burlington socks, Pony and “No Fear” sports wear, Family Rubbing Alcohol and Red Bull, among other products.
Parayno said Pacquiao might not be at fault, but his handlers could be.
“They have the responsibility to become models because the youth look up to them and we want them to be worth looking up to,” he said of Pacquaio and members of the entertainment industry.
The BIR is also going after basketball star Paul Asi Taulava.
Parayno said the BIR would not agree to any compromise in the event Pacquiao was charged with tax evasion.
“Once the line is crossed, there’s no turning back,” he said.
