The Taxwoman’s top 10 list

By Cong B. Corrales

DEATH and taxes, according to American statesman Benjamin Franklin, are the only things certain in this world. And in the Philippines, the taxman — err, taxwoman – cometh on April 15, the deadline for filing of tax returns.

One would think that as sure as night follows day, the super rich would also top the nation’s list of top taxpayers.

But the lists of the top 500 individual taxpayers in the Philippines from 2008 to 2012 from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) show a different trend.

During the period, only a certain Ronald R. Soliman has consistently figured in the top 10 lists of individual taxpayers. Soliman ranked 5th, 3rd, 10th, and 7th in the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2012, respectively. It was only in 2011 that Soliman did not land even in the top 500 individual taxpayers’ list.

Soliman is the executive vice president of Graceland Properties Development Inc., and president and chief executive officer of Icon Development Corporation.

Curiously, press reports have linked both of his companies in an alleged investment scam in 2010.

INFOGRAPHICS by Cong B. Corrales

Then Senator Rodolfo G. Biazon, acting on the reports, filed Senate Resolution 1538 on Jan. 20, 2010 seeking to conduct an “inquiry on the operations of a certain entity known as Graceland Properties Development, Inc that has allegedly been conducting an investment scam with the end in view of crafting remedial legislation to protect investors from such scams.”

But five years hence, the inquiry has not moved past the Senate’s Committee on Trade and Commerce.

Meanwhile in October 2012, the Enforcement and Prosecution Department of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued SEC CDO Case No. 03-12-00 ordering the two Soliman companies to permanently “cease and desist” from “offering and issuing unregistered securities to the public.”

The SEC order was “issued to restrain acts of Respondents-Movants (Graceland Properties, Inc. and Icon Development Corp.), their agents and successors that operate as a fraud to the investing public.”

Like Soliman, two consistent placers in the top 10 taxpayers lists from 2008 to 2012 are erstwhile TV game show host Wilfredo B. Revillame and TV star Kristina Bernadette C. Aquino, youngest sister of President Benigno S. Aquino III.

Revillame ranked second in 2008, 2009, and 2012 as a taxpayer. Aquino, listed as Kristina Aquino Yap, ranked 8th in 2008, first in 2011, and 6th in 2012.

A third taxpayer with fortune linked to TV, Felipe L. Gozon, GMA Holdings, Inc. chair, ranked 10th in the top 10 lists in 2009 and 2011.

In stark contrast, however, some of the known Filipino tycoons had landed in the BIR’s top 10 taxpayers lists from 2008 to 2012 only once.

INFOGRAPHICS by Cong B. Corrales

Named by Forbes Magazine as the “richest person in the Philippines,” Henry Sy Sr. appeared in the list of top 10 taxpayers only in 2009 when he placed 6th. According to Forbes, as of March 16, 2015, the net worth of Sy and his family comes up to US$14.1 billion. Henry Sr. is founder of the SM group, chairman of the board of SM Investments Corp. chairman emeritus of SM Prime, and chairman of SM Development and Highlands Prime, Inc.

For his part, Ramon S. Ang, vice chairman, president, and chief operating officer of San Miguel Corp., showed up in the top 10 roster only in 2009 when he placed fourth. In 2013, Forbes had estimated Ang’s net worth to be about US$260 million.

One of two scions of an old-wealth family, Fernando Zobel de Ayala, also ranked once at 10th place, in 2012.

Manuel V. Pangilinan, President of Smart Communications Inc. and Manila Electric Company, appeared in the top 10 list only in 2011; he ranked fourth. According to Forbes, Pangilinan’s net worth is US$105 million. That, Forbes added, is “based on what we can prove, though sources claim he owns higher stakes than publicly known.”

In another set of lists from the BIR, the top non-individual or corporate taxpayers, Pangilinan’s companies have invariably rated higher.

According to the BIR’s list for 2013, Smart Communications Inc. leads the nation’s top 10 corporate taxpayers with an income tax due of P10.891 billion. In second place is Manila Electric Co. or Meralco with an income tax due of P9.690 billion.

In the 2012, the top 10 list of corporate taxpayers follow: San Miguel Brewery, Inc (P4.879 billion), Nestlé Philippines (P4.810 billion), Chevron Malampaya LLC (P4.516 billion), Shell Philippines Exploration, B.V. (P4.483 billion), Globe Telecom, Inc (P4 billion), PMFTC, Inc (P3.422 billion), Chemwealth, Inc (P2.908 billion), and SM Prime Holdings, Inc (P2.777 billion).

If some companies are so awash in taxable income, why are their shareholders not among the Philippines’ top individual taxpayers, too?

In a report by the Philippine Star, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares explained new names in BIR’s latest list appeared is because it is based on income reported in the income tax return (ITR) and income subject to withholding tax as compensation income—unlike in the previous years where it was “only based on income in ITR filed.”

This also explains, according to Jacinto-Henares, why many of the country’s super rich have recently started to figure in the BIR’s list of top individual taxpayers.

The taxwoman cometh again on April 15, the deadline for filing tax returns. Who will make it, who will not, to the top 10 list? – PCIJ, March 2015