The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) today filed a criminal complaint against two individuals, together with the Registrar of Deeds of Dagupan City, in connection with the transfer of title over a parcel of land and the improvement thereon using a falsified Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR) and Tax Clearance Certificate (TCC).

Charged with the Department of Justice were HUMBERTO CASON SOLIS (SOLIS) of Dagupan City, Pangasinan and ELMA DELA CRUZ VERSOZA (VERSOZA) of Lingayen, Pangasinan for willful attempt to evade or defeat tax, deliberate failure to supply correct and accurate information and willful utilization of falsified CAR and TCC for taxable year 2010, all in violation of Section 254, Section 255 and Section 257 (B) (8) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended (Tax Code).

On the other hand, ATTY. CECILIA L. MUNAR (MUNAR), in her capacity as Registrar of Deeds of Dagupan City, was charged for permitting the transfer of the said properties in direct violation of Section 58 (E), in relation to Section 269 (e) and (h) of the Tax Code.

At the outset, it was made to appear that Solis sold to Versoza on March 11, 2010 a property purportedly an agricultural lot located in Binalonan, Pangasinan covered by Transfer Certificate of Title (TCT) 89201. Consequently, BIR Revenue District Office No. 6, Urdaneta City issued a CAR and TCC in favor of Solis and Versoza for the said transaction.

In the course of its investigation, the BIR however discovered that the same TCT 89201 used in securing the CAR from BIR at Urdaneta City was falsified. Careful scrutiny of the said TCT however revealed that it pertains to a commercial lot located at A.B. Fernandez Ave., Dagupan City.

The BIR likewise found out that the said lot in Dagupan City covered by the “authentic” TCT 89201, together with the building thereon, was transferred from Solis to Versoza by the Register of Deeds of Dagupan City with use of falsified documents that included, among others, the CAR issued by the BIR at Urdaneta City for the transfer of the property purportedly located in Binalonan, Pangasinan.

The said CAR issued at BIR Urdaneta was falsified by the replacement, alteration, addition and superimposition of details on the face of the said document, among others, of the classification of the lot from agricultural to commercial, location of the lot from Binalonan to Dagupan City and tax payments of Capital Gains Tax and Documentary Stamp Tax in the amount of P6,000 and P1,500 to P206,000 and P31,500, respectively.

The act of Solis and Versoza of using a falsified CAR (and TCC) explicitly showed a scheme to willfully evade the payment of the corresponding revenue taxes on the transfer of ownership of the subject properties, thus depriving the government of the much needed revenues in 2010 amounting to P51.49M, inclusive of surcharges and interests, broken down into: (VERSOZA) P7.24M – Expanded Withholding Tax; (SOLIS) P27.99M – Income Tax; P1.81M – Documentary Stamp Tax; and P14.45M – Value-Added Tax.

Munar, for her part, effected the transfer of the subject properties knowing fully well that the CAR was issued at Urdaneta City, Pangasinan, as can be perused from the face of the document, and not at Calasiao, Pangasinan, the BIR Revenue District Office that has jurisdiction over the subject properties and that based on such document, it cannot be determined whether the taxes thereon had been paid. Furthermore, she willfully permitted the transfer of the said properties despite the patent alterations and erasures on the face of the CAR brought about by Solis and Versoza that would have otherwise put her on guard.

The case against HUMBERTO CASON SOLIS, ELMA DELA CRUZ VERSOZA and Dagupan City Registrar of Deeds ATTY. CECILIA L. MUNAR is the ninety-seventh (97th) filed under the Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program of the BIR under the leadership of Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares. It is likewise a RATE case of Revenue Region No. 1, Calasiao, Pangasinan. (