A United States federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Philippine government to pay $10.9 million in back taxes for operating a building on a prime stretch of Fifth Avenue, New York City.
In his ruling, US District Court Judge Jed S. Rakoff said New York City had a right to collect taxes on portions of buildings used by other countries for non-diplomatic purposes.
Rakoff said diplomatic privileges do not exempt the countries from tax obligations since only the home of the head of a mission is exempted from taxes, as stated in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations and the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
The judge also ordered the government of India to pay $42.4 million in taxes for operating a 26-story tower near the United Nations building with 20 floors of apartments occupied by diplomatic employees. It should also pay $4.3 million in taxes for a six-story building with two floors of staff residences.
The Philippine Center at 556 Fifth Avenue in New York City was acquired by the Philippine government in 1973. The building houses the country’s Mission to the United Nations, the Trade Representatives Office, the Tourism Representatives Office, the Commission on Audit (COA) representative office and the center management office.
After closing the Maharlika restaurant, the Center leased the space from Nov. 5, 1987 up to May 1996 to Philippine National Bank and rented the “fourth floor" to the Philippine Airlines from 1974 to 1988.
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Topic: US Court Orders RP to Pay $10.9M in Taxes (Read 714 times)