By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Manny Pacquiao’s business manager Rod Nazario said yesterday he has ”all the receipts” covering tax payments of the Ring Magazine featherweight champion to prove that the old Team Pacquiao paid his taxes dutifully under the US Internal Revenue Service Law contrary to the allegations made by Pacquiao, his new management team headed by Shelly Finkel and some members of media.
In a long distance telephone conversation with Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today, Nazario said “we have all the receipts of payment of more than $187,000 for three years and have the IRS documents to prove it.” Nazario said he would “make all these documentspublic” next week on his return from the US.
Nazario who nurtured the career of Pacquiao since he was a 16 year old kid who carved a name for himself on the Vintage Sports weekly boxing show “Blow by Blow” said he was also trying to recover the checks indicating the payments were made. Nazario said he would make public a letter from the lawyer and accountant of Murad Muhammad of M&M Sports which “clearly indicated that the $525,000 deducted by the IRS from Manny’s purse from the Erik Morales fight reflected 30 percent of the tax due on the purse and not to cover any previous tax liabilities” which was another allegation made by Pacquiao and his new management team.
Cecile Glunt, Senior Tax Specialist of the IRS in Las Vegas in a meeting with Nazario, his son Roberto who handles his affairs in the US and this columnist made it clear that the $525,000 being taken out of Pacquiao’s $1.75 million purse for the fight against Erik Morales “represented 30 percent” of the tax due on the purse.In a communication with Manila Standard Today, Glunt quoted pertinent provisions of the US tax laws referring to the “withholding agent’s obligations with respect to payments made to non-resident aliens.” It states “a withholding agent is defined in section 1.1441-7 (a) of the regulations as any U.S. or foreign person (including a corporation or other entity) that has control, receipt, custody, disposal of payment of any item of income of a foreign person subject to withholding. Internal Revenue Code section 1441 (a) requires a withholding agent that makes payments to nonresident aliens to withhold and pay 30 % of the gross amount to the United States Treasury.”
Glunt added that “withholding agents are personally liable for the taxes they are required to withhold. If a withholding agent fails to withhold the proper amount of taxes required by Internal Revenue Code section 1441, and the nonresident alien receiving the payment fails to pay federal income tax on the payment received, the withholding agent may be liable for the payment of such taxes, including interest and penaltes” which effectively absolves Pacquiao even if the taxes were not paid.