Publishing the Observations Made by the Supreme Court in Its Decision in the Case Entitled "Republic of the Philippines vs. Benito S. Lopez, . . ." No. L-18007, Promulgated on March 30, 1963

October 17, 1963 REVENUE MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 31-63 SUBJECT : Publishing the Observations Made by the Supreme Court in Its Decision in the Case Entitled "Republic of the Philippines vs. Benito S. Lopez, . . ." No. L-18007, Promulgated on March 30, 1963 TO : All Internal Revenue Officers and Others Concerned For the information and guidance of all concerned, there is quoted hereunder the pertinent observations made by the Supreme Court in its decision in the case entitled " Republic of the Philippines vs . Benito S . Lopez ". cdll "However, we feel it our duty to call attention to the extraordinary reduction by the revenue authorities of the taxes due in this case from the original P245,100.25 to less than one-tenth of it (P20,346.14) upon reinvestigation. Such a result is ample evidence that the first assessment was carelessly make, without regard to the true facts, and it strongly reflects upon the efficiency of the revenue examiner who made the grossly excessive assessment. Actually anomalous is the fact that after the taxpayer had promised to pay the computed tax, and after he had filed to keep his promise, the tax authorities should still agree to a further revision of the assessment. Irregularities of this kind inevitably provoke a suspicion over the competency and honesty of the tax collecting operations, and it is enacted that the competent properties will take immediate and drastic steps to stop such deplorable practices ." (Emphasis supplied) Internal revenue officers and all concerned are hereby enjoined to exercise more care in the investigation, assessment and collection of all internal revenue taxes in order to avoid suspicion in their official actuations. Supervisory officers processing the reports of fieldmen should see to it that any assessment issued by virtue thereof is warranted by the facts reported therein and by the law applicable to the case. Publicity Internal revenue officers and others concerned with the enforcement of internal revenue laws are hereby requested to give this circular as wide a publicity as possible. llcd (SGD.) RAMON T. OBEN Acting Commissioner of Internal Revenue