G.R. No. L-28554 - Unno Commercial Enterprises, Inc. vs. General Milling Corp.

Petitioner: Mobil Philippines, Inc., a domestic corporation engaged in manufacturing, importing, exporting, and wholesaling petroleum products.
Respondents: The City Treasurer of Makati and the Chief of the License Division of the City of Makati, responsible for implementing the City’s Revenue Code, including the collection and assessment of business taxes, license fees, and permit fees.

Prior to September 1998, Mobil Philippines maintained its principal office at the National Development Company Building in Makati City.
On August 20, 1998, the petitioner filed an application with the City Treasurer of Makati for the retirement of its business in Makati as it transferred its principal place of business to Pasig City.
The application included declarations of its gross sales/receipts for the years 1997 and 1998, with detailed figures provided for each period (calendar year and January-to-August for 1998).

Following the relocation application, the then Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the License Division, Ms. Jesusa E. Cuneta, issued a billing slip assessing business taxes for the 4th quarter of 1998 (using 1997 gross sales as the basis) and for the gross sales made in 1998 during January to August.
Specific computation details included separate assessments as a Manufacturer and as a Wholesaler, as well as a Garbage Fee, aggregating to a total assessed business tax of P1,898,106.96.
On September 11, 1998, Mobil Philippines paid the assessed amount under protest and received Official Receipt No. 9065025C, which also approved its application for retirement in Makati.

On July 21, 1999, the petitioner filed a claim for a refund in the amount of P1,331,638.84, contending an erroneous overcharge.
On August 11, 1999, the City Treasurer denied the refund claim, arguing that the petitioner was merely transferring its operations rather than retiring the business entirely, and maintained that taxation was proper based on gross sales from January 1 to August 31, 1998.
Subsequently, Mobil Philippines filed a petition with the Regional Trial Court of Pasig City, Branch 268 seeking a refund of the overpaid business taxes.

The trial court held that business tax accrues on the first day of January and is payable within the first 20 days of January (or the subsequent quarter), and that the payments made in 1998 were for the 1997 business tax liability that accrued in January 1998.
It ruled that because the business tax for the current year (1998) could not be computed until the following year, the petitioner was liable for business taxes based on its 1998 gross sales.
Based on the legal basis provided by Makati City Revenue Code provisions, the court found the assessment proper and denied the refund petition, dismissing the case for lack of merit.

Mobil Philippines challenged the trial court's interpretation, contending that the business tax paid in 1998 should be considered as payment for the taxes of that same year rather than for 1997.
The petitioner argued that using the prior year’s gross sales merely served as a basis for computation rather than as confirmation that the tax paid pertained to 1997, thereby asserting that the imposed methodology resulted in double taxation.

Whether the business taxes paid by Mobil Philippines in 1998 should be classified as taxes for the previous year (1997) or for the current year (1998).
Determination of the correct period to which the computed business taxes pertain, given the use of prior period gross sales in computing the tax for transactions occurring in the current year.

Whether the assessment and collection of additional taxes based on gross sales for January to August 1998, in conjunction with the tax computed using 1997 sales figures, resulted in double taxation.
The proper interpretation of the Makati City Revenue Code in applying tax rates and bases for newly-started versus continuing business operations during a period of business relocation or retirement.