LETTER OF INSTRUCTIONS NO. 65

TO    :    All Heads of Departments, Bureaus, Agencies and Instrumentalities of the Government; and
              others Concerned.

Pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081, dated September 21, 1972, and General Order No. 1, dated September 22, 1972, in order to fully implement the declared policy of the Government enunciated in Presidential Decree No. 23, dated October 16, 1972, as amended by Presidential Decree No. 67, dated November 24, 1972, granting a tax amnesty on previously untaxed income and/or wealth, you are hereby directed to comply strictly with the following guidelines:

I — After the tax imposed under Presidential Decree No. 23, as amended, shall have been paid, the following shall be observed:

1.    The confidential nature of the taxpayer's declaration made pursuant to the said Decree and the payment made thereon, shall forever be held inviolate and no government official, bureau or office may thereafter require the declarant disclose any information relative thereto in any form or manner whatsoever;

2.    "The taxpayer shall not be subject to any investigation, whether civil, criminal or administrative insofar as such previously untaxed wealth and/or income is concerned and shall not be used as evidence against, or to the prejudice of, the declarant in any proceeding before any court of law or body, whether judicial, quasi-judicial or administrative in which he is a defendant or respondent, and such declaration shall not be examined, inquired or looked into by any person, government official, bureau or office." (P.D. No. 23); and,

3.    "It shall be unlawful for any official or employee having knowledge of such declaration to disclose to any person any information relative to such declaration and any violation hereof shall subject the offender to an imprisonment of not more than two (2) years." (P.D. No. 23).  

1.    The Secretary of Finance, thru the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, shall utilize the entire tax enforcement machinery of the government in ferreting out persons who failed to voluntarily disclose any previously untaxed income and/or wealth; and

2.    Apply upon such persons the full force of the law, including, if necessary, their arrest and detention.

Since 19.07.98.