GR 167679; (April, 2016) (Digest)
G.R. No. 167679. April 20, 2016
ING BANK N.V., ENGAGED IN BANKING OPERATIONS IN THE PHILIPPINES AS ING BANK N.V. MANILA BRANCH, PETITIONER, VS. COMMISSIONER OF INTERNAL REVENUE, RESPONDENT.
FACTS
This case involves a Motion for Partial Reconsideration filed by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR) concerning the Court’s July 22, 2015 Decision. That Decision had granted ING Bank’s petition in part, setting aside deficiency documentary stamp tax (DST) assessments for 1996 and 1997 due to the bank’s valid availment of the tax amnesty under Republic Act No. 9480. The CIR’s motion argues that DST on special savings accounts is excluded from the amnesty coverage. The CIR bases this on Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) Nos. 69-2007 and 19-2008, which state that the amnesty does not cover “taxes passed-on and collected from customers for remittance to the BIR.” The CIR contends that DST, being a tax typically passed on to clients, falls under this exclusion and urges the Court to revisit its prior rulings.
ISSUE
Whether the deficiency documentary stamp tax assessments on ING Bank’s special savings accounts are excluded from the coverage of the tax amnesty under R.A. No. 9480 because they are “taxes passed-on and collected from customers.”
RULING
The Motion for Partial Reconsideration is denied. The Supreme Court held that documentary stamp tax is expressly covered by the tax amnesty under R.A. No. 9480. The law’s clear language covers “all national internal revenue taxes,” which includes DST. The exclusion cited by the CIR from the RMCs cannot prevail over the statute. Administrative issuances, such as revenue memorandum circulars, cannot amend, alter, or restrict the scope of a legislative enactment. They are merely interpretative rules that cannot impose additional exclusions not found in the law itself. The Court further clarified that the nature of DST as a tax on the document itself, for which the bank as the issuer is primarily liable, does not automatically classify it as a “tax passed-on” in the context intended to be excluded by the law. The exclusion for taxes “passed-on and collected” refers to funds already segregated and held in trust for the government, such as withheld taxes, not to a taxpayer’s own potential liability for DST which was the subject of a disputed assessment. Therefore, ING Bank’s availment of the amnesty properly extinguished its liability for the deficiency DST.