REPUBLIC V.
SUNLIFE ASSURANCE COMPANY OF  Managed by its members - ownership is vested in
CANADA
G.R. NO. 158085 | OCTOBER 14, 2005
FACTS:
 Sun Life is a Canadian mutual life insurance company registered
and authorized to engage in business in the Phils. On Oct. 20,
1997 it filed with the CIR its insurance premium tax and DST
returns covering the 3rd quarter of 1997 and paid for these taxes.
 The CTA and SC rendered its decision in the Insular Life case,
holding that mutual life insurance companies are purely
cooperative companies, therefore rexempt from payment of
premium tax and DST. Hence, on Aug 20, 1999 Sun Life filed
with the CIR an administrative claim for tax credit of its allegedly
erroneously paid premium tax and DST.
 For failure of CIR to act on the claim & with the 2-year period
to file a claim for tax credit/refund about to expire, Sun Life
filed with the CTA a petition for review, praying for the issuance
of the tax credit, on the ground that it is a mutual life insurance
company vested with all the characteristic features and elements
of a cooperative company that is exempt from tax under Sec.
121.
ISSUE:
1. Whether or not Sunlife is a purely cooperative company
2. Whether or not registration with the CDA is a sine que non
requirement to be entitled to tax exemption
HELD/RATIO: 1. Yes; 2.No
1. The Tax Code defines a cooperative as an association
conducted by the members thereof with the money
collectede from among themselves and solely for their own
protection and not for profit. Respondent is a cooperative
engages in a mutual life insurance business
member-policyholders who are each entitled to vote
and elect from themselves its board of trustees.
 Operated with money collected from its members -
member-policyholders constitute both insurer and
insured who contribute, by a system of premiums or
assessments, to the creation of a fund from which all
losses and liabilities are paid.
 It licensed for the mutual protection of its members,
not for the profit of anyone. “The amount received by
members does not partake of the nature of
profit/income. [xx] It remains an overpayment, a
benefit to which the member-policyholder is equitably
entitled.
2. Under the Tax Code, although respondent is a cooperative,
registration with the Cooperation Development Authority
is not necessary for it to claim exemption from payment of
both percentage taxes on insurance premiums, under Sec.
121; and DST on policies of insurance or annuities it grants,
under Sec. 199.
 Tax code does not require such registration (Sec. 8 of
RMC No. 48-91 which requires the registration with
CDA cannot prevail over the clear absence of an
equivalent requirement under the law itself.
 Only cooperatives to be formed or organized under the
Cooperative Code needed registration with the CDA. It
was also not required to be registered in the Bureau of
Cooperatives Development under PD 175 - the
predecessor law of the Cooperative Code.
 Not even the Insurance Code requires registration with
the CDA
DISPOSITIVE:
WHEREFORE, the Petition is hereby DENIED, and the assailed
Decision and Resolution are AFFIRMED. No pronouncement as to
costs.