Tax experts and veteran officials from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) clarified yesterday that its not the duty of boxing icon Manny Pacquiao to file and pay income tax in the United States out of his earnings from boxing there. They said that responsibility lies with his promoter Top Rank promotions owned by Bob Arum under the US withholding tax system upon which the withholding tax system provision in the Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of the Philippines was copied. The tax experts said under the system, Pacquiao gets his cash prize net of tax and that the same formula is applied when Pacquiao receives his pay for endorsing commercial products and his share from the pay-per-view proceeds of his boxing fights. In case of deficits in the payment of the final withholding tax they said Arum's obligation is to remit the deficiency to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the US. Later he should ask Pacquiao to reimburse it because the boxer-lawmaker is considered a non-resident alien. They said however it would be a different issue if Pacquiao is a holder of a dual citizenship card and engaged in business or trade in the US. The tax experts issued the comment following news reports that IRS is going after Pacquiao for the unpaid taxes out of his boxing matches in the US, although his camp denied on this report.
