Corporation' Includes Partnerships, No Matter How Created or Organized."
Corporation' Includes Partnerships, No Matter How Created or Organized."
L-9996 October 15, 1957 conformity with the usual requirements of the law on
partnerships, in order that one could be deemed constituted for
EUFEMIA EVANGELISTA, MANUELA EVANGELISTA, and purposes of the tax on corporations. A partnership, as defined
FRANCISCA EVANGELISTA, petitioners, in the Civil Code, refers to two or more persons who bind
vs. themselves to contribute money, property, or industry to a
THE COLLECTOR OF INTERNAL REVENUE and THE COURT OF
common fund, with the intention of dividing the profits among
TAX APPEALS, respondents.
themselves. Thus, petitioners, being engaged in the real estate
Facts transactions for monetary gain and dividing the same among
themselves constitute a partnership so far as the Code is
Petitioners borrowed money from their father and purchased several concerned and are subject to income tax on corporations.
lands. For several years, these lands were leased to tenants by the
petitioners. In 1954, respondent Collector of Internal Revenue Petitioners insist, however, that they are mere co-owners, not
demanded from petitioners the payment of income tax on copartners, for, in consequence of the acts performed by them, a
corporations, real estate dealer's fixed tax and corporation residence legal entity, with a personality independent of that of its members,
tax for the years 1945-1949. A letter of demand and corresponding did not come into existence, and some of the characteristics of
assessments were delivered to petitioners. Petitioners claim that partnerships are lacking in the case at bar. This pretense was
they should be absolved from paying said taxes since they are not a correctly rejected by the Court of Tax Appeals.
corporation.
The tax in question is one imposed upon "corporations", which,
Issue strictly speaking, are distinct and different from "partnerships". When
our Internal Revenue Code includes "partnerships" among the
Whether petitioners are subject to the tax on corporations provided entities subject to the tax on "corporations", said Code must allude,
for in Section 24 of Commonwealth Act. No. 466, otherwise known therefore, to organizations which are not necessarily "partnerships",
as the National Internal Revenue Code, as well as to the residence in the technical sense of the term.
tax for corporations and the real estate dealers fixed tax.
For purposes of the tax on corporations, our National Internal
Held Revenue Code, includes these partnerships — with the exception
only of duly registered general copartnerships — within the purview
Yes. Petitioners are subject to the income tax and residence tax for of the term "corporation." It is, therefore, clear that petitioners herein
corporation. constitute a partnership, insofar as said Code is concerned and are
subject to the income tax for corporations.
As defined in Section 84 (b) of the National Internal Revenue
Code (Commonwealth Act No. 466), "the term ‘corporation’ Since Section 2 of Commonwealth Act No. 465 in defining
includes partnerships, no matter how created or organized." corporations which also includes joint-stock company,
This qualifying expression clearly indicates that a joint venture partnership, joint account, association or insurance company,
need not be undertaken in any of the standard forms, or in no matter how created or organized, it follows that petitioners,
regardless of how their partnership was created is also subject renting property or his own account as principal and
to the residence tax for corporations. holding himself out as a full or part time dealer in real
estate or as an owner of rental property or properties
Section 2 of Commonwealth Act No. 465 provides in part: rented or offered to rent for an aggregate amount of
three thousand pesos or more a year. . .
Entities liable to residence tax.-Every corporation, no matter
how created or organized, whether domestic or resident
foreign, engaged in or doing business in the Philippines shall
pay an annual residence tax of five pesos and an annual
additional tax which in no case, shall exceed one thousand
pesos, in accordance with the following schedule: . . .