PURE EVIL

It started like any other deal.

Once upon a time, a Buyer and Seller agreed on a verbal offer, everything looked good—until the Buyer’s Broker (BB) dug deeper.

While doing due diligence, BB discovered that the Seller was actually a registered lessor. That meant one thing: VAT liability.

BB did the responsible thing and informed the Seller. The Seller's Broker (SB) wasn't much help during the transaction so they communicated directly. Upon hearing this, the Seller panicked. If the sale was VATable, his net proceeds would shrink dramatically. Within days, the deal collapsed.

You’d think that’s the end of the story. But the real nightmare came after.

A few days later, BB got a call from the SB.

SB:

“O ayan lesson learned mo yan. That’s why we don’t disclose that (the sale is vatable). Wala tayong RIGHT sabihin yan.”

(See? That’s your lesson. That’s why we don’t disclose that. We don’t have the right to say that.)

“Pabayaan mo BIR bumulaga sa kanila.”

(Let the BIR surprise them.)

“Di natin problema yan.”

(That’s not our problem.)

“And di naman problema ng buyer yan.”

(And it isn’t the Buyer’s problem either.)

“Sa susunod, hayaan mo lang pag ganyan. Tumahimik ka lang. Pag naipasok na sa loob (ng BIR) di na sila makaka atras naman eh. Problema na nila yun!”

(Next time, don’t say anything. Once the papers are filed with the BIR, they won’t be able to back out. That’s the Seller’s problem!)

Ladies and gentlemen: that’s the Seller’s Broker reprimanding the BB for warning HER OWN client.

And here’s the scarier part—many brokers reading this, deep inside, will likely side with the SB. Always be closing, right?

But maybe silence isn’t just willful—it could be ignorance. Perhaps they genuinely don’t know when a sale is VATable. Is that an excuse?

Think about it: This is exactly like the shampoo scandal with Bela Padilla that’s going viral right now. The BOC’s tax calculator turned out to be faulty—actual taxes were 2.6x higher than what it showed! In our story, the gap is even worse: once you factor in income taxes, it’s a staggering 7x more.

Careful…one of these evil brokers might just be representing you too...