BIR Ruling [DA-324-98]

July 17, 1998 BIR RULING [DA-324-98] The Regional Director Revenue Region No. 13 Cebu City S i r : This is in response to the area of concern indicated in your Summary Report of Staff Meeting Discussions for the month of February 1998, requiring attention and/or action by the Assistant Commissioner (Legal Service), viz: LLpr re : Request of Ombudsman for certified copies of the Income Tax Returns of some government officials Relative thereto, please be informed that the aforesaid request of the Ombudsman cannot be granted in view of the prohibition under Section 270 of the Tax Code of 1997 which provides viz: "SEC. 270. Unlawful Divulgence of Trade Secrets . Except as provided in Section 71 of this Code and Section 26 of Republic Act No. 6388, any officer or employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue who divulges to any person or makes known in any other manner than may be provided by law information regarding the business, income, or estate of any taxpayer, the secrets, operation, style or work, or apparatus of any manufacturer or producer, or confidential information regarding the business of any taxpayer, knowledge of which was acquired by him in the discharge of his official duties, shall, upon conviction for each act or omission, be punished by a fine of not less than Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000) but not more than One hundred thousand pesos (P100,000), or suffer imprisonment of not less than two (2) years but not more than (5) years, or both. To justify your stand, you can cite the ruling of this Office in DA-260-96 dated July 19, 1996 (xerox copy attached) denying the request of BGen. Manuel B. Casaclang (Ret.), Deputy Ombudsman for the Military for certified true copies of the income tax returns of Chief Supt. Romeo Maganto in connection with the latter's pending case with the Ombudsman. Parallel to the above, Section 278 also of the Tax Code of 1997 provides, viz: SEC. 278. Procuring Unlawful Divulgence of Trade Secrets . Any person who causes or procures an officer or employee of the Bureau of Internal Revenue to divulge any confidential information regarding the business, income or inheritance of any taxpayer, knowledge of which was acquired by him in the discharge of his official duties, and which it is unlawful for him to reveal, and any person who publishes or prints in any manner whatever, not provided by law, any income, profit, loss or expenditure appearing in any income tax return, shall be punished by a fine of not more than Two thousand pesos (P2,000), or suffer imprisonment of not less than six (6) months nor more than five (5) years, or both. Finally, it may not be amiss to state herein that this Office has denied similar request coming from other government agencies, i.e., Senate, House of Representatives, NBI, etc., for certified true copies of income tax returns needed in the investigation of those who have acquired ill-gotten wealth. Very truly yours, (SGD.) ESTHER R. IBAEZ Assistant Commissioner (Legal Service)