MikeLigalig.com

By Nikko Dizon
Philippine Daily Inquirer

“Ang Panday” creator and “massacre films” director Carlo J. Caparas has been slapped with a multimillion-peso tax evasion case stemming from a P1.3-billion contract between the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) and his production outfit.

Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said Caparas was facing 64 counts of criminal charges for violating the Tax Code when he failed to remit taxes from 2006 to 2009.

Henares said the PCSO had paid Caparas P850.95 million for the production of various programs during the period.

The BIR chief made the announcement at a press conference at the Justice department where the agency filed the case against the controversial film and TV director. Justice Secretary Leila de Lima was present at the media briefing.

From his earnings from the PCSO, Caparas must pay the government P540.21 million inclusive of surcharges and penalties, Henares said.

The total income tax that Caparas has to pay amounts to P344.59 million with value-added tax worth P195.61 million, she said.

Caparas’ wife, Donna Villa, was spared from the suit as she was not named in the contract between the director and the PCSO, Henares said.

She said that national artists were not exempt from paying taxes. “Nobody in the Philippines is exempt completely from taxes,” she stressed.

In July 2009, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo named Caparas a National Artist under a new category, visual arts and film.

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