The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has denied for lack of jurisdiction the petition of Suburbia Automotive Ventures, Inc. against the P46.05 million tax assessments issued by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
The BIR issued a preliminary assessment notice (PAN) dated Sept. 6, 2010 assessing Suburbia Automotive for deficiency income tax, value added tax (VAT), and expanded withholding tax (EWT) amounting to P45,745,423.40 including interest.
Suburbia Automotive filed a letter reply on Oct. 2, 2018, asking for reinvestigation and reconsideration of the assessment. However, the BIR issued the formal letter of demand (FLD) on Oct. 11, 2018 assessing the firm the same deficiency taxes worth P46,059,701.11.
Despite protests from Suburbia Automotive, the firm received the Final Decision on Disputed Assessment (FDDA) from the BIR on May 23, 2019. It then brought the case to the CTA by filing a Petition for Review on July 22, 2019.
However, the CTA dismissed the petition in a decision promulgated last March 3. "The present Petition for Review must be dismissed as this Court lacks jurisdiction to entertain the same," the court ruled.
The CTA said that Suburbia Automotive has not validly contested the subject tax assessments for its failure to submit all relevant documents within the 60-day period from the filing of its request for reinvestigation/letter.
Also, the court said, Suburbia Automotive failed to specify in the same letter the newly discovered or additional evidence it intends to protest, so its appeal assailing the FDDA has been deemed "premature."
"It bears emphasis that this Court, being a court of special jurisdiction, can take cognizance only of matters that are clearly within its jurisdiction. Moreover, when a court has no jurisdiction over the subject matter, the only power it has is to dismiss the action," the CTA stressed.
The 16-page decision was written by Associate Justice Corazon G. Ferrer-Flores with the concurrence of Associate Justices Ma. Belen M. Ringpis-Liban and Maria Rowena Modesto-San Pedro.