BIR Ruling

October 20, 1970 Hon. Manuel B. Syquio Secretary Department of Public Works & Communications Manila S i r : This refers to your letter dated October 8, 1970 stating, among others, that the Philippine Postal Administration, in cooperation with the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and the Asian-Oceanic Postal Union (AOPU), is scheduled to host a UNDP assisted regional postal seminar to be held in Manila from November 23 to December 5, this year; that the seminar will call for the participation of around 20 high postal officials from various developing countries in the region, several foreign lecturers and a number of officials from the Philippine Postal Service; and that the seminar will be held at Manila Hotel and during their study tour in Baguio at Pines Hotel. Under the foregoing facts, you would like to request exemption from the payment of the necessary hotel taxes that may otherwise be collected from or charged to the Bureau of Posts by the aforesaid hotels as an incident of their charges for the use of their rooms and facilities. In reply, I have the honor to inform you that your request cannot be granted for lack of legal basis. The Bureau of Posts cannot claim exemption from the 3% tax to be levied on the hotel operators in accordance with Section 191 of the Tax Code, as amended by Republic Act No. 6110 for the reason that the name is a tax directly payable by the hotel operators. The fact that the tax may ultimately be shifted to or passed on the hotel guests will not constitute the tax as a tax on the Bureau of Posts which, incidentally foots the bill of the participants to the aforesaid seminar, (BIR Ruling No. 68-014, dated August 21, 1968). aisadc Very truly yours, CONRADO P. DIAZ Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue