The Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) has ordered the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to return to a mining company some P58 million in unutilized input value-added tax (VAT).

In a 13-page en banc resolution, the CTA affirmed the decision of its Second Division to refund the excess tax payments to Philex Mining Corporation for the two quarters of 2012.

It said the BIR erred in denying the tax refund claim stressing that the mining firm was able to present documents showing that it sold gold, silver and copper to its foreign clients, namely; Pan Pacific Copper Limited of Japan and Louis Dreyfus Commodities Metals Suisse of Switzerland.

As a result, the court said the sale can be considered zero-rated and Philex is entitled to be refunded for all its input VAT or taxes paid in the purchases of supplies and equipment.

The court stated that the input VAT claim by Philex was not applied to its previous tax liabilities.

The court added that the BIR cannot demand what type of supporting documents the VAT taxpayer should submit, sufficed that it was able to present invoices from the export sales.

by Jun Ramirez