by David P. Greisman
As a dispute continues between Manny Pacquiao and the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), one of the boxer’s houses has now had a lien placed on it, according to the country’s ABS-CBN News, whose reports are the source for nearly all the information to follow.
In essence, the lien would allow the government the ability to seize the home unless the debt is paid.
“Normally, we gave them time to come up with the money before we take the next step, which is auctioning and bidding it out,” a BIR official told ABS-News.com.
The BIR claims Pacquiao owes the country 2.2 billion pesos, or about $50 million dollars, for back taxes due on his income in 2008 and 2009 — due, that is, unless he has already paid the taxes for that income in the United States, where all five of Pacquiao’s fights were in those years.
That’s what Pacquiao and promoter Top Rank say was done long ago; Top Rank released a statement on Nov. 26 saying so, and a photo of Pacquiao holding up his U.S. tax forms for those years was posted online today.
But until this dispute is resolved, the BIR has the lien on his home, and has also frozen Pacquiao’s bank accounts. The BIR official told ABS-News.com, however, that only two accounts have been frozen, for a total of 1.1 million pesos, or about $25,000.
The official claims that Pacquiao’s inability to finance aid to typhoon victims, among other efforts, shouldn’t be blamed on that limited amount of money being frozen.
“How can he say that he cannot do all these things because we have all his money? The only money that we have is P1.1 million,” the official was quoted as saying.
Pacquiao, meanwhile, says that more than just those two accounts’ worth of money were frozen.
ABS-CBN News says that Pacquiao’s declared net worth in 2012 was 1,770,566,772 pesos, or more than $40 million, with liabilities of 258 million pesos (close to $6 million).
His assets were worth 2,028,566,772 pesos, or about $46.4 million. Those assets included 1,037,909,792 pesos (or close to $23.8 million) of “real property,” which can include land and buildings; and 990,656,980 pesos (or close to $22.7 million) of personal property, which is everything else, including money, stocks, etc.
Pacquiao would also owe 32 percent of his purse from this past weekend’s win over Brandon Rios, the BIR official said.
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