MANILA — The Bureau of Internal Revenue is going after its own employee and his wife for allegedly selling and installing software that would suppress the amount of sales in point-of-sales machines to keep the taxes of their customers down.

BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, Jr. on Thursday filed a complaint with the Department of Justice against a Legazpi-based software provider, owned by the wife of a BIR employee.

The wife is the sole proprietor of the software provider while the husband, who worked for BIR Legazpi, is the one who allegedly installs the software.

“Ang isinampa nating kaso ay yung pagmamanipula ng sales machine o yung tinatawag nating POS machine, point of sale machine. Dahil ang mga negosyante, meron silang kailangan i-rehistro na sales machine sa atin, yung nagrerecord ng kanilang benta. Ngayon, ang ginawa ng negosyanteng ito na may kasabwat, asawa niya, na empleyado natin dito sa BIR, minanipula nila ang benta,” Lumagui said, explaining the modus to the media.

That employee, he added, has been fired.

Section 264-B of the National Internal Revenue Code punishes the purchase, use, sale and installation of any software or device designed to suppress electronic records of sales or to delete records of transactions with a fine of between P500,000 and P10 million or imprisonment of between 2 to 4 years.

Cumulative suppression of electronic sales records beyond P50 million is considered economic sabotage, punishable by the maximum penalty.

According to Lumagui, the amount of sales not recorded allegedly reached P6.4 billion from just 4 customers of the software provider.

It is not yet immediately clear to the BIR how long the software provider has been operating and how many other clients it has.

But the BIR is investigating the other clients of the software provider, who are mostly engaged in retail, and if there’s a syndicate involved.

Lumagui said the scheme was discovered when they audited an entrepreneur who employed the software. They immediately looked for the provider.

“Yung software mina-manipulate nila. Merong naka ano doon na program na automatic yan…Kunyari kada-sampung resibo may buburahin na tatlo,” he said.

Lumagui warned businesses against using a similar scheme and BIR employees against colluding with businesses.

“‘Yang mga sales machine ninyo ay siguraduhin niyo na hindi yan nandadaya dahil kasi meron din kaming mekanismo na kaya naman naming malaman yan. At inuumpisahan din natin ang ating kampanya laban dito kaya wag na kayo gumamit at wag kayong bumili ng ganitong mga software na mandaraya ng inyong mga benta,” he said.

“At again doon sa ano rin, sa mga ating empleyado, siguraduhin natin na hindi tatayo na makikilahok sa ganito. Nakakalungkot yan na tayo pa mismo ang tumutulong sa mga taxpayers na mag-evade when in fact tayo mismo dapat ang nangongolekta at nagsasabi sa ating mga taxpayers na magbayad ng tamang buwis,” he added.

The BIR has so far filed complaints for tax evasion against cigarette and vape companies and entities and individuals involved in selling fake receipts.

“Kaya nga kung meron tayong kampanya laban sa pekeng resibo, talagang hahabulin din natin to dahil parang ganyan din yan. Tinatanggal nila yung totoong benta nila at hindi nila nirereport nila yung totoong benta nila dahil ultimately, yung nga, binubura nila yung transakyon,” he said.

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