THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) revoked last Monday the accreditation of an accountant who served as an external auditor of the companies criminally-charged by the bureau for selling ghost receipts.
The BIR said it has also filed necessary administrative and criminal charges against the accountant whom the agency identified as Jennifer Cunanan Roncesvalles.
The BIR explained that Roncesvalles was the one who issued the Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certificate attached to the financial statements of the companies involved in the sale of “ghost” receipts.
“She is now facing a criminal case before the Department of Justice (DOJ) and an administrative case for the revocation of her license before the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC),” the bureau said in a statement issued last Monday.
The revocation of Roncesvalles’s license and the filing of charges against her was part of the BIR’s “Run After Fake Transactions,” or “Raft,” program that seeks to purge companies using fake receipts to evade tax obligations.
The BIR noted that Roncesvalles violated Sections 8(A) (2), (4), and (1) of Revenue Regulation (RR) 11-2006, as amended by RR 04-2010.
The BIR earlier explained that the modus involves registered companies issuing receipts to another company for a non-existent product or service in order for the latter to avail of tax deductions.
“This serves as a warning to all CPAs involved in “ghost” and/or fake receipts. You will lose your PRC [Professional Regulation Commission] license. You will lose your BIR accreditation. You will be imprisoned for tax evasion,” BIR Commissioner Romedo D. Lumagui Jr. was quoted in the statement as saying.
“Uphold the core values of being a CPA. Your profession and stature in society, confer not only prestige but also that of a higher responsibility to the financial system of the country,” Lumagui added.
The BIR disclosed that it is now auditing the buyers of the fake receipts.
Publicly-available PRC documents online showed that Roncesvalles’s accreditation application as an individual in the practice of public accountancy was approved by the Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy last August 2020.
Roncesvalles’s accreditation is valid until July 29 of this year, according to the Board of Accountancy’s Resolution 35 (series of 2020).
In March, the BIR made its first tax rap against four companies it discovered were engaging in fake transactions. The BIR said such transactions cost the government at least P25.5 billion in lost revenues. (See: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2023/03/17/bir-files-tax-evasion-case-vs-ghost-companies-in-fake-transactions/)