Boxing hero floored in fight over tax

Philippine boxing hero Manny Pacquiao said yesterday authorities had frozen all his domestic bank accounts over allegations of unpaid taxes from lucrative fights in the US, leaving him financially paralysed.

"This is harassment," the former eight-division world champion said in an interview on ABS-CBN television, as he disclosed for the first time a freeze order issued by the Philippines' Bureau of Internal Revenue in recent months.

The shock announcement came just two days after Pacquiao, 34, resurrected his boxing career with a unanimous points decision win over American Brandon Rios in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau. The victory, which Pacquiao devoted to the victims of typhoon Haiyan, only added to his lustre among millions of ordinary Filipinos, who idolise the fighter.

Pacquiao is now eyeing more lucrative fights in the US. He is also pursuing a political career in the Philippines.

Pacquiao said the tax office took the action because it believed he had evaded paying taxes on his fights in the US in 2008 and 2009 when he was at the peak of his career and earning tens of millions of dollars.

He said he had broken no laws because he had already paid taxes on those earnings in the US, which has a treaty with the Philippines that allows citizens of both countries to avoid double taxation.

"I am not a criminal or a thief. I am not hiding anything," Pacquiao said. "I have already paid my taxes in America. Had I not paid the correct taxes they [US authorities] would have come after me and I would not have been able to travel there."

The Philippine tax bureau confirmed the local bank accounts of Pacquiao and his wife, Jinkee, had been frozen.

The Pacquiaos have asked the Court of Tax Appeals to lift the bank freeze, but the court has yet to rule on the couple's petition.

At his peak, Pacquiao became the only man to win world titles in eight weight divisions, and one of the wealthiest athletes in the world. But his career nosedived after two losses last year, the second a humiliating knockout to Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez that prompted questions over whether the ageing warrior should retire.

However, even last year Forbes magazine listed him as the 14th highest-paid athlete globally, with an estimated $34-million in earnings.