Kopiko faces BIR tax evasion case

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has filed a tax evasion case against Tri Dharma Marketing, the exclusive local distributor of Indonesia-based coffee brand Kopiko.Filed this Thursday with the Department of Justice, the BIR said that the company has under declared its income and exagereated its expenses for 2010.An investigation found that TriDharma declared a net income of P211.44 million on its ITR for 2010 when it should have filed P5.296 billion, a deficit of 2,404.85%. Crunching the numbers, the BIR said that has an aggregate tax liability to P4.47 billion.Rene de la Calzada, TriDharma president and CEO, issued a statement in response to the case, saying that “strict compliance with all Philippine laws is the No. 1 priority of TriDharma.”“We found large discrepancies in the BIR assessment, so we filed a petition with Court of Tax Appeals to look into the matter…We are waiting for the resolution of the Court of Tax Appeals before we pay our taxes,” De la Calzada said, as quoted by the Inquirer.Indonesia’s PT Mayora Indah appointed TriDharma as the exclusive national distributor of its products back in November 2005. This include the popular Kopiko Black coffee and Kopiko Brown Coffee, Kopiko Candies, Fres Candy and Energen Cereal Drink.