Requirement Imposed Upon Persons or Corporations Authorized to Use Loose-Leaf Invoices

August 26, 1959 BIR RULING NO. 446-59 5th Indorsement Respectfully returned to the Regional Director, Regional District No. 3, Manila, the docket of the case of the American President Lines, Ltd. Pursuant to section 352 of the Tax Code, a person who violates any provision of said Code or any regulation of the Department of Finance made in conformity with the same, for which violation no specific penalty is provided by law, shall be punished by a fine of not more than P300.00 or by imprisonment for not more than six (6) months, or both such fine and imprisonment. The requirement imposed upon persons or corporations authorized to use loose-leaf invoices to submit within a certain period a sworn statement certifying to the number of invoices used during a given year is neither a provision of the Tax Code nor a regulation of the department of Finance made in conformity with the same. Such being the case, the failure to submit such statement on time is not a violation falling under the penalized by said section 352. Neither is it penalized by any other section of the Tax Code. Accordingly, no compromise penalty can be imposed against the aforenamed taxpayer, such failure not giving rise to any penal liability. The American President Lines, Ltd., should, however, be advised that whenever in its opinion it would not be able to comply with the requirement on time, it should file the necessary request for extension of time, and that repetition of such failure for a considerable number of times would constrain this Office to revoke the authority granted to it to use loose-leaf invoices. (SGD.) MELECIO R. DOMINGO Commissioner of Internal Revenue