The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has canceled the more than P26 million tax debts of a drug company for the apparent failure of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to properly notify the taxpayer about the delinquency.

The court's Second Division rejected the claim of the BIR that Drugmakers Biotech Research Laboratories received the preliminary and final assessment notices as evidence by the registry return receipt (RRR) issued by the postal office.
The court noted that a male witness of the BIR admitted during the trial that he was not certain that the signature on the RRR belonged to the authorized representative of the drug firm based in San Pedro, Laguna.
The resolution said the mailing of the assessment notices must be clearly established or the taxpayer would be ''unreasonably placed at the mercy of the taxing office.''
''The RRR merely proved the mailing and does not prove the actual receipt of the collection notice,'' said Associate Justice Juanito C. Castaneda, Jr. who wrote the 35-page verdict.
The tax liabilities covered deficiency income and value-added taxes for the year 2008.