By CZARINA NICOLE ONG KI

The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has denied the P262 million tax refund claimed by Ford Group Philippines, Inc. for the firm's alleged excess and unutilized creditable withholding taxes (CWT) for 2018.

Ford filed its Application for Tax Credits/Refunds before the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Sept. 23, 2020 for P262,074,181. For alleged inaction on the part of the BIR, it elevated the issue before the CTA on May 17, 2021.

It told the CTA that the P262 million CWT were withheld from income payments in the total amount of P26,138,846,057, which were declared as part of its total gross income in the amended annual income tax return (ITR) for 2018.

It also claimed that the sizable amount of its prior year's credits was more than enough to cover and pay the income tax due for 2018, thus, the CWTs for 2018 were not needed in paying the income tax due for said taxable year and remained unutilized which can be properly refunded.

On the other hand, the BIR argued against the tax refund claim since Ford did not provide supporting documents to show that the income from which the CWT being claimed was declared in the annual ITR.

Ruling on the issue, the CTA's first division said that Ford failed to prove that the income payments subjected to CWTs were reported as part of its gross income in its annual ITR.

"For petitioner's (Ford) failure to sufficiently prove its entitlement to refund the amount of P262,074,181 for its excess and unutilized CWTs for 2018, the present claim must necessarily fail," the CTA ruled.

The 23-page decision was written by Associate Justice Lanee S. Cui-David with the concurrence of Presiding Justice Roman G. Del Rosario and Associate Justice Jean Marie A. Bacorro-Villena.