Abraham Lee pays tax due ‘under protest’

Rescue workers pull out one of the victims from the rubble of a construction workers’ bunkhouse in Archbishop Reyes, Barangay Lahug, Cebu City hours after the structure, owned by J.E. Abraham C. Lee Construction and Development Inc., collapsed at 2:57 a.m. on Tuesday, March 6, 2018.

The owner of the collapsed bunkhouse in Barangay Lahug handed payments amounting to P300, 568.50 to the Cebu City Treasurer’s Office on Friday afternoon as a settlement for their company’s tax liabilities with City Hall.

But the payment was made “under protest” and “subject to the final findings of our external auditor Mr. Luis Cañete,” said Teita C. Alejandria, the company’s chief financial officer.

Alejandria wrote OIC City Treasurer Veronical Morelos on Friday to inform her of the payment that their company made on the same day.

“You see we are still trying to ascertain proper amounts for the years of overpayment for fiscal year 2015 and underpayment for the year of 2016. There is some confusion on the declared gross sales for services rendered by the company that is subject of the business tax,” said Alejandira’s one-page letter, a copy of which was posted on the Facebook page of J.E. Abraham C. Lee Construction and Development Inc. (ACLI) at around 6 p.m. on Friday.

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