Corporate officers, accounting firms, and certified public accountants of three companies were charged with tax evasion, involving at least P18 billion, for buying and using alleged “fake receipts” since 2018 in their business transactions. “Nagsampa tayo ng kaso laban sa mga bumibili ng ghost receipts (We filed cases against those who bought ghost receipts),” said Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Romeo D. Lumagui Jr. who led the filing of the criminal complaints before the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Wednesday, June 21. Lumagui identified the three companies as World Balance, CHK Steel and Gamon Resources.  Copies of the complaints were not available and the three firms named in the complaints could not be contacted for comment as of posting. He said those named in the complaints include “their corporate officers, the accounting firms they engaged, and the CPAs (certified public accountants) who signed their documents.” “Ang kasong kinakaharap nila ay tax evasion. Kasong criminal ‘yan. So may kaparusahang pagkakakulong ‘yan in addition doon sa kanilang babayarang buwis na nakita natin dahil again hindi totoong expense ‘yan (They face tax evasion cases. These are criminal cases. So, it carries the penalty of imprisonment in addition to paying the taxes because what they submitted were not real expenses),” he explained. Lumagui also said: “Ang total estimated tax liability na nakita pa lang natin dito sa tatlong kumpanya pa lang na ito ay mahigit kumulang na P18 billion (the total tax liability that we saw in these three companies is around P18 billion).” He said the BIR had filed criminal complaints against “ghost corporations that have been selling ghost receipts.” “So based on documents kitang kita na agad na ginamit nila mga resibo ng mga ghost corporations (Based on documents, it can be seen outright that these companies used the receipts of these ghost corporations),” he also said. He pointed out that the complaints against the three companies are just the first batch of complaints to be filed against those using ghost receipts. “Libo-libo ang nakita natin na bumibili ng ghost receipts (We have found thousands buying ghost receipts),” he disclosed. “Siguro  mga more or less around P500 billion ‘yan ang mga makokolekta natin dito sa mga bumibili ng mga pekeng resibo (we could be able to collect around P500 billion from those that bought fake receipts),” he said. “Ongoing ang development laban sa iba pang kumpanya (We are developing our cases against these companies),” he added.