MANILA -- The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Monday said it has sued cosmetics company Ever Bilena for alleged tax deficiencies amounting to P9,316,206.88 from 2018 to 2021.

In a statement, the BIR said Ever Bilena made it appear that it had millions of purchases in the years 2018 and 2021, but no such transactions happened.

The purchases were also based on non-existent goods and services from a "ghost company", the BIR said. 

The BIR said that because of this, Ever Bilena was able to declare purchases which are almost equal to its sales. 

Allegedly fictitious purchases from "ghost companies" are intended to over-claim deductions both in the Annual Income Tax Return (AITR) and quarterly VAT returns (QVTRs) which eventually leads to a lesser or almost minimal income and VAT payments, the tax bureau explained.

BIR said it is suing Ever Bilena for alleged violations of Sections 254, 255, 267 and 257 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.

ABS-CBN News is seeking Ever Bilena's side on the BIR complaint, as of posting.

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