Benedicta “Dick” Du-Baladad is the Managing Partner of Du-Baladad & Associates (BDB Law). She is an accountant and a lawyer by profession and has been in practice on the field of taxation and corporate law for almost 25 years.

Before setting up BDB Law, Dick was the Head of the Tax Advisory & Compliance department of a leading auditing and consulting firm in the country. In her 8 years of stay with this firm, she provided services in tax planning, transfer pricing, handling tax assessments, disputes and claims for refunds, requests for rulings, availment of treaty benefits, tax compliance and tax advisory to various local and multinational clients including banking, insurance, other financial institutions, technology; energy; manufacturing and advertising.
Dick is a tax specialist in banking, insurance, capital market, financial intermediation, advertising and technology. She is the author of the book “Taxation of Financial Institutions in the Philippines” which won an Anvil Award of Merit in 2007. Her product specialization includes tax advocacy, tax planning, transfer pricing, handling disputes and assessments and tax compliance.

Dick is a former official of the Philippine tax authority - the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) - where she worked for a period of 17 years. She held various positions including that as a Head Revenue Executive (HREA) for the departments of Legal Service and the Enforcement Service. As a revenue official, she gained extensive experience in tax audit and investigation, assessments and collection processes, tax rulings and opinion, tax treaty interpretation, and tax administration.
She played an important role in designing the structure, work programs, strategies and vision of the BIR’s Large Taxpayer Service. She also headed various special teams which conducted industry audit on banks, insurance, conglomerates, airlines and shipping lines, and multinationals.

Areas of practice

• Tax Consulting and Advisory
• Tax Planning
• Handling Tax Disputes, Assessments, Requests for Rulings and Claims for Refunds
• Tax Litigation
• Transfer Pricing
• Advocacy

Sector expertise

Financial institutions: Banks, Insurance Companies, Capital Markets, Asset Management and Financing Companies.

Education

• Advanced Management Program
  Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (2007)
• Master of Laws and International Tax Program
  Harvard University (1997)
• Bachelor of Laws, University of Santo Tomas (1989)
• Bachelor’s degree in Accountancy, Magna cum laude,
  St. Louis University (1982)

Professional certifications

• Certified Public Accountant
• Lawyer

Professional qualifications and memberships

• Chairperson (2007-2009), Tax and Legal Committee
  Financial Executives of the Philippines (FINEX) (2007-2009)
• Chairperson (2004), Tax Committe
  Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants
  (PICPA)
• Co-chairperson (2005 to present), Tax Committee
  Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry
  (PCCI)
• President (2005
  Tax Management Association of the Philippines
  (TMAP)

Publications

• Author, Taxation of Financial Institutions in the Philippines
• Philippine correspondent, Tax Notes International and Worldwide Tax Online
• Columnist of Business Mirror