BIR Ruling [DA-219-03]

July 9, 2003 BIR RULING [DA-219-03] 204; 129-99 Ms. Felina P. Ouano 1181 Hernan Cortes Street Mandaue City Gentlemen : This refers your letter dated September 13, 1999 which was indorsed to this Office on November 25, 1999 by Atty. Maximo I. Banares, Jr.,Office of the President, Presidential Action Center, requesting for exemption from the payment of withholding taxes for all cancer patients who are burdened with too much high cost of medicines. You stated that your last check-up with your Oncologist on March 18, 1999 revealed that your cancer has gone beyond your expectations as shown in the bone scan; that it has reached your bones and has eaten up your spinal column up to your skull; that you incurred massive absence from your work, informing your superiors in the Commission on Audit Regional Office No. VII, Cebu City of your state of health; that through all these difficulties, you realized that the government as your employer has not extended even a little amount of financial aid to you; that this adds up to your worries and disappointments in life; that you feel alone in your fight against cancer and that if you survive you can report back to work and if not end up in the grave; that you sustain your bone pains with morphine and other pain relievers; that on March of 1999 up to May 31, 1999, you were absent from work because you were advised to rest by your doctors; that during these time, you underwent daily radio therapy (COBALT) at 15 minutes exposure to radiation; that you were scheduled to resume chemotherapy on July of 1999 but you were not able to comply because one session of chemotherapy costs P27,000.00/month and you are required 6 sessions of chemotherapy or a total of P162,000.00; that with your meager salary as State Auditor II and considering that you are head of the family, you have a difficulty raising the amount necessary for your medication; and that the withholding tax in the amount of P2,400/month will help you to purchase the needed medicines for your breast and bone cancer. HIESTA In reply, please be informed that this Office takes due notice of your plight and sympathizes with your predicament. However, tax exemptions are highly disfavored in law and are construed in strictissimi juris against the taxpayer. He who claims an exemption must be able to justify his claim by the clearest grant of organic law or statute. For this season, our hands are tied and we are therefore constrained to deny your request for exemption from the payment of your income taxes considering that your alleged problem cannot legally support the grounds by which the Commissioner can abate or cancel your tax liability under Section 204 of the Tax Code of 1997. Otherwise, to grant your request would create a bad precedent, as thousand others who are similarly situated or with even greater problem than you might parade before us to seek the same redress. (BIR Ruling No. 129-99 dated August 20, 1999) This constitutes our final stand on the matter. Very truly yours, Commissioner of Internal Revenue By: (SGD.) JOSE MARIO C. BUAG Deputy Commissioner Legal & Inspection Group