Bloomberry boss Enrique Razon may now heave a sigh of relief after the Philippine Supreme Court (SC) has pulled out the corporate income tax stake that the government has driven through the heart of his casino business in 2014.

In a decision dated August 10, 2016 but was only released on Monday, the SC struck down the Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 33-1013 of the Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and ordered the tax agency to cease and desist corporate income tax on income from gaming operations of casinos duly licensed by the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR).

This Supreme Court decision will allow PAGCOR and Bloomberry Resorts and Hotels, Inc. (Bloomberry) as an integrated casino resort to revert to the original license fee structure of 15% and 25% license fee (inclusive of the 5% franchise tax) for high rollers/junket and mass gaming respectively.

In June 2014, Bloomberry, the developer of Solaire Resort and Casino, had questioned the validity of the BIR’s RMC 33-2013 which declared that PAGCOR’s income from operations and licensing of gambling firms is now subject to corporate income tax under the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).