United Airlines v. CIR
United Airlines v. CIR
United Airlines v. CIR
Is petitioner then subject to income tax on Gross Philippine Billings derived from off-line Passenger Revenue? It is evident that the
definition of "Gross Philippine Billings" under Section 28(A)(3)(a) of the 1997 NIRC covers the gross revenue derived from the
carriage of persons, excess baggage, cargo and mail "originating from the Philippines in a continuous and Uninterrupted flight"
irrespective of the place or sale or issue and the place of payment of the ticket or passage document. "To originate" would mean "to
cause the beginning of; to start (a person or thing) on a course or journey; to begin, start" (Webster's Third New International
Dictionary). Otherwise stated, the flights carrying the passengers must have originated or started from the Philippines. Verily,
petitioner, being an off-line international carrier, as authorized to operate by the Civil Aeronautics Board and having no passenger
flights originating from the Philippines in a continuous and uninterrupted flight in 1999, cannot be taxed under Section 28(A)(3)(a) of
the NIRC of 1997 on its passenger revenue from tickets sold in the Philippines, covering flights originating outside of the Philippines.
However, it does not follow that petitioner is entitled to the refund sought for. It must be stressed that the 2.5% income tax (reduced
to 1.5% pursuant to the RP-US Tax Treaty) imposed on Gross Philippine Billings under Section 28(A)(3)(a) of the NIRC of 1997,
applies to gross revenues derived by an international carrier not only from the carriage of persons but also from the carriage of
cargoes originating from the Philippines. Petitioner had cargo flights to and from the Philippines in 1999. In fact, petitioner paid the
amount of P11,104,927.00 as 1.5% GPB tax on its cargo revenues amounting to P740,328,462.00. But in computing for the cargo
revenue amount of P740,328,462.00, petitioner erroneously deducted the commissions and other incentives it paid to its agent.
Based on the net cargo revenue amount of P711,816,490.07 17 which was verified to be duly supported by airway bills by the Court
commissioned auditing firm, the commissions and other incentives deducted by petitioner amounted to P141,786,993.85 and
P1,982,068,006.26
For purposes of the gross Philippine billings (GPB) tax imposed on international airlines, gross revenues shall include
commissions and other incentives paid to agents. GROSS REVENUE is subject to GPB tax on international airlines. Gross
revenue means the entire or whole revenues without deductions.
United Airlines is not allowed to claim for the refund as it actually underpaid its tax on cargo revenues because they
deducted deduction from their entire or whole revenues. For GPB, one should not deduct as gross revenue means the
entire or whole revenues without deductions. The underpaid tax for cargo revenue amounted to 31 million while the claim
of United for overpaid tax for its passenger revenue amounted to only 5 million. The Court partly agreed with petitioner
that indeed it overpaid its passenger revenue but it also said that they computed wrongly for their cargo revenue as they
included the deductions when they computed for their cargo revenue tax, thus though they did overpay 5 million, they
underpaid 31 million. So the petition was denied.