Articles Subject to Specific Tax Forfeited by the Government Can be Sold at Public Auction

November 5, 1959 BIR RULING NO. 577-59 MEMORANDUM FOR: The Revenue Operations Executive (Assessment) B.I.R., Manila This is in connection with the question of whether or not articles subject to specific tax forfeited by the Government can be sold at public auction. In the memorandum of this Office dated August 6, 1958 the sale at public auction of 371 cartons of smuggled assorted American cigarettes was authorized pursuant to section 313 of the National Internal Revenue Code which provides as follows: "Sec. 313. When property to be sold or destroyed . Sales of forfeited chattels and removable fixtures shall be effected, so far as practicable, in the same manner and under the same conditions as to public notice and the time and manner of sale as are prescribed for sales of personal property distrained for the nonpayment of taxes. "Distilled spirits, liquors, cigars, cigarettes, other manufactured products of tobacco, and playing cards, and all apparatus used in or about the illicit production of such articles may, upon forfeiture, be destroyed by order of the Collector of Internal Revenue, when the sale of the same for consumption or use would be injurious to the public health or prejudicial to the enforcement of the law. "All other articles subject to specific tax, which have been manufactured or removed in violation of this Code, as well as dies for the printing or making of internal-revenue stamps, labels and tags which are in imitation of or purport to be lawful stamps, labels, or tags may, upon forfeiture, be sold or destroyed in the discretion of the Collector of Internal Revenue. "Forfeited property shall not be destroyed until at least twenty days after seizure." Under the abovequoted provisions of the Tax Code, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue may sell the forfeited articles if the consumption thereof would not be injurious to public health and such sale would not be prejudicial to the enforcement of the law. In cases however, where a criminal case is pending in Court involving the forfeited articles, it is suggested that the city or provincial fiscal handling the case be consulted regarding the disposition of the forfeited articles. aisadc (SGD.) MELECIO R. DOMINGO Commissioner of Internal Revenue