How can that not be an option?
Someone has to go BIR to pay the taxes. You or your lawyer should be the ones. In a previous post I mentioned putting in a clause that the seller should provide all cooperation ( including signatures) free of charge. I've heard stories of sellers wanting 10 k pesos to go down to the lawyers office to sign documents. Once the money has changed hands the sellers charming personality can disappear in a heartbeat.
I don't know if it's legal or enforceable but you could try putting in a clause saying the seller will indemnify and hold harmless the seller against all adversarial claims against the title.

 

Because the seller insists on paying the cap. gains tax. Motive? Anyone's guess; mine is a financial one.
Lawyer insists that transfer of the title won't work if seller persists in the demand to pay that tax themselves. Motive? Anyone's guess; mine is a financial one.
Buyers throws hands in the air and thinks this is a strange country indeed (but would hate to walk away from the deal).

 

Firstly, I forgot to mention the real estate fee, normally 5%, is included in the negotiations as well. When my wife gets home I will ask her your question.

 

When we came here 10 years ago and bought a property to save us having the paper work hassle we agreed a price with the seller that included them to pay all the fees and capital gain tax, BIG mistake, the title was never coming and the seller was blaming their "broker" (i use that term loosely) for not doing what they paid them to.
Long story short and it was an excruciatingly long story we had to pay 10,000php to get it sorted, not a huge amount and the time wasted was more annoying.
When we came to sell that property we insisted the buyer take care of all transfer and capital gain transactions as once we had the money they could take as long as they want to get the title.
The next place we bought we settled on a price that included us paying everything even the brokers 5%, all went no problem.

 

Basically it is Buyer beware

 

If a country desires to improve it does need to have good consumer-protection laws; here there are very few. The only people benefiting are the unscrupulous and attorneys.

 

You are correct. The buyer always paid the taxes

 

I'll let you all know how this mess ends, I still have a few ideas that may work (if the seller agrees).