Release of Cigarettes on board S.S. "Steel Chemist" from Customs Custody

September 8, 1958 BIR RULING NO. 583-58 Church of Jesus Christ New Jerusalem P.O. Box 1293, Manila Gentlemen : With reference to your letter dated August 26, 1958, requesting the release from customs custody, free of tax, of a shipment to you of two (2) cases cigarettes on board S.S. "Steel Chemist" under Bill of Lading No. 2, on the ground that the same is a donation intended for free distribution among its poor and destitute members, I have the honor to inform you that, in the light of the decision of the Secretary of Finance contained in his letter to you dated July 28, 1958 relative to a similar request from you for exemption from "all taxes and duties under Republic Act No. 1916", this Office can find no justification to grant your request. You will please recall that the Secretary of Finance concurred in the opinion of the Commissioner of Customs embodied in a 2nd Indorsement dated July 7, 1958, which reads as follows: prll "For purposes of tax exemption under Republic Act No. 1916, it has been consistently held in the implementation thereof that the use to which donated articles consigned to a duly; organized religious corporation is intended, whether such articles are for its own exclusive use or for free distribution, must be for civic, religious or charitable purposes only. In this instant case, after due consideration of the nature of the articles and the character of the intended recipients, this Bureau could not consider the free distribution of the donated cigarettes by the donee consignee, Church of Jesus Christ "New Jerusalem," to its own members as being for civic, religious or charitable purposes only. In view thereof, it is submitted that the subject cigarettes are not entitled to exemption under Republic Act No. 1916." Premises considered, your request has to be, as it is hereby denied. LexLib Very respectfully, (SGD.) MELECIO R. DOMINGO Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue