THE Commission on Elections will exhaust all legal remedies available and will file a motion for reconsideration on the Court of Tax Appeals ruling directing it to pay P1 billion in tax obligations to the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
The P1 billion represents withholding tax deficiencies for 2015, as assessed by the BIR.
The Comelec had questioned the BIR’s Final Decision on Disputed Assessment before the CTA. But the tax court’s Special First Division dismissed the poll body’s petition for review.
John Rex Laudiangco, the Comelec spokesperson, said the poll body would file a motion for reconsideration iterating its affirmative defenses and justifications to ensure that these would be given sufficient emphasis.
Laudiangco also noted that after this MR, the procedures allow the Comelec to file another petition for review as well as a motion for reconsideration before the CTA en banc.
Another option, should the situation warrant it, is to elevate the matter to the Supreme Court through a petition for review on certiorari, he said.
“The Commission stresses that our courses of action are justified given the circumstances attendant to this case. Said justifications will all be reincorporated and emphasized in our Motions and Pleadings to be filed as we intend to avail all remedies under the CTA Rules of Procedure and the Rules of Court,” he said.
In its ruling against the Comelec, the CTA’s Special First Division said the BIR assessment of tax deficiencies was already final and executory because the poll body failed to file a protest during the designated 30-day time period.
It said a Comelec employee had duly received the Final Assessment Notice/ Formal Letter of Demand from the BIR.
