The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has denied the petition of a private individual who sought a reversal of the warrant of distraint or levy (WDL) and warrant of garnishment (WOG) issued against him by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The CTA ruled that petitioner Danilo N. Matias failed to appeal the BIR's ruling within the 30-day period mandated by Republic Act No. 1125, the CTA law, as amended by RA 9282.
Matias received a letter dated March 28, 2022 from the branch manager of Bank of the Philippine Islands Vigan City Branch with a copy of the WOG dated March 21, 2022.
He sent a letter to the BIR Region 1, requesting to lift both the WDL and WOG. His request was denied on July 7, 2022.
When another attempt to lift the WDL and WOG was denied, Matias filed a petition for review before the CTA's second division on Oct. 26, 2022. His petition was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
Matias then elevated his case before the CTA as a full court on Nov. 10, 2023.
In its ruling, the CTA en banc said:
"To complete the picture, while the WDL and WOG assailed by petitioner (Matias) fall within other matters arising under the NIRC (National Internal Revenue Code), as amended, recognized under Section 7(a)(l) of RA No. 1125, as amended by RA No. 9282, the Court in Division found that petitioner failed to seasonably challenge these collection measures, within the 30-day reglementary period to appeal, as required in Section 11 of the same law, leading to the dismissal of CTA Case No. 11025, for lack of jurisdiction:.
"Based on the allegations in the Petition for Review, petitioner received the WDL and the [WOG] "sometime in March or April 2022."
"Even assuming that the said warrants were received on the last day of April 2022, petitioner should have appealed to [the Court in Division] on or before May 30, 2022.
"Instead of doing so, petitioner merely sent letters twice to the Regional Director of BIR Revenue Region No. 1[,] requesting for the lifting of the foregoing warrants.
"These letter-requests to the Regional Director did not interrupt the running of the reglementary period[,]let alone serve to extend the 30-day period to appeal. It was only when petitioner's request was denied by the Regional Director that he was prompted to file the present Petition for Review on Oct. 26, 2022.
"By that time, the 30-day period to appeal had long elapsed.
"Wherefore, the Verified Petition for Review En Bane dated Nov. 10, 2023, filed by Danilo N. Matias in CTA EB No. 2824 is denied for lack of merit. The Resolutions dated July 10, 2023 and Oct. 9, 2023, handed down by the Court in Division in CTA Case No. 11025, are affirmed. So ordered."
The eight-page decision was written by Associate Justice Marian Ivy F. Reyes-Fajardo with the concurrence of Presiding Justice Roman G. Del Rosario and Associate Justices Ma. Belen M. Ringpis-Liban, Catherine T. Manahan, Jean Marie A. Bacorro-Villena, Maria Rowena A. Modesto-San Pedro, Lanee S. Cui-David, Corazon G. Ferrer-Flores, and Henry S. Angeles.