THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) yesterday bared its priorities for this year in order to hit its collection target and improve taxpayer compliance now that the first of up to five planned tax overhauls is in effect.

The priorities were spelled out in Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 6-2018, signed by BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay and issued on Jan. 16.

Mr. Dulay said earlier this month that the BIR’s tax collection target this year is P2.039 trillion, 11.48% more than the P1.829 trillion target it initially set early last year and 15.66% more than the downward-revised P1.763 trillion target stated under the 2018 Budget of Expenditures and Sources of Financing (BESF).

Republic Act No. 10963, or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act (TRAIN), was enacted on Dec. 19 last year and took effect on Jan. 1. It is the first of up to five packages cumulatively designed to shift the tax burden more on those who can afford to pay more, while yielding additional revenues to help finance the government’s P8.13-trillion infrastructure development drive until 2022, when President Rodrigo R. Duterte will end his six-year term.

In a press release yesterday, the BIR said that it collected a total of P1.779 trillion in 2017, 12.92% more than the P1.576 trillion recorded in 2016.

This is equivalent to the 97.27% of the P1.829-trillion collection goal set for 2017, according to the tax bureau. However if compared to the BESF target, it surpassed the goal by nearly a percentage point, or about P16 billion.

The circular said that the programs would revolve around three principal objectives namely: attain collection targets, improve taxpayer satisfaction and strengthen good governance.

To attain collection targets, the bureau will:

• expedite updating the schedule of zonal values, “to reflect current real property valuation, taking into account the most recent actual sales”;

• intensify audit investigations by maximizing the use of Computer Assisted Audit Tools and Techniques to “collect an amount equal to 3.0% of the Bureau’s total collection goal”;

• enhance implementation of the arrears management program in BIR’s regional offices to “increase collection by 6.0% of potentially recoverable arrears”;

• broaden the tax base to 10% of active registered taxpayers’ through its “Tax Compliance Verification Drive (TCVD)”;

• review all pending cases with the Court of Tax Appeals and the Department of Justice, and file “a minimum of one significant case per semester, per revenue district office RDO under its Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) program;

• strengthen the BIR’s imposition of prescribed administrative sanctions, through enforcement of at least one closure per semester, per RDO under its Oplan Kandado Program;

• clean up the existing Taxpayer Account Management Program;

• and implement new taxes and administrative measure under the TRAIN.

To improve taxpayer compliance, the BIR will wage education and public awareness campaigns in tri-media and social media, as well as improve information and communications technology solutions for this purpose.

In order to strengthen good governance, the bureau will:

• expedite recruitment of new personnel and promotion of qualified employees;

• conduct capacity-building training across its regional offices;

• improve budget disbursements;

• and “act upon administrative cases filed against erring revenue officials and employees”.

For 2017, the BIR said that it was able to file 112 cases under RATE involving liabilities totaling P40.948 billion.

For the Oplan Kandado Program, 125 businesses were closed, collecting about P252.14 million over tax violations like “gross understatement of gross sales/receipts, non-compliance with the value added tax (VAT) law, and non-issuance of the requisite VAT.”

Meanwhile, some 164,062 business establishments’ records were scrutinized under its TCVD program, which resulted in a P224.8-million take from erring firms. — Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan

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