BIR continues to miss collection target

Collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in March rose by nearly a tenth from a year ago but still fell short of the government’s goal despite aggressive campaigns against tax evaders. INQUIRER PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in March rose by nearly a tenth from a year ago but still fell short of the government’s goal despite aggressive campaigns against tax evaders.

Government documents released Tuesday showed that BIR collections rose by 9.82 percent to P82.18 billion in March from the same period in 2013. However, this was lower than the target of P90.5 billion for the month.

The year-on-year growth in collections in March was better than the 5.18-percent increase recorded in February.

Data released earlier this week showed the country’s budget shortfall in the first two months of the year rose 40 percent to P43.9 billion as the government increased spending for reconstruction efforts in Visayas.

This month’s collection target has been set at P176.51 billion, higher than last April’s collection goal of P142.7 billion. Collections in April are expected to be the highest for any month this year because of the April 15 deadline for many tax payments.

In a bid to boost collections, the government launched several public information campaigns to encourage small businesses and self-employed individuals to declare their proper income and pay the corresponding taxes.

Among these were the Department of Finance’s “Tax Watch” shame campaign launched last July. This involves the weekly publication of lists of individual and corporate taxpayers in various industries.

Tax Watch’s goal is to show the public who among self-employed individuals and companies pay taxes disproportionately smaller than the size of their wealth.

For March 2014, collections from BIR operations amounted to P78.91 billion, P6.95 billion or 9.66-percent more than collections made in March 2013. Collections from non-BIR operations amounted to P3.27 billion, P400.85 million or 13.98-percent up year-on-year.

The BIR said collections of regional offices totaled P31.79 billion, or P2.9 billion or 10.03 percent more than the collections made in March 2013, continuing with the previous year’s trend of double-digit growth registered by the regional offices.

Collections of the Large Taxpayer Service (LTS) amounted to P47.12 billion, P4.05 billion or 9.41-percent more than collections made in March of last year.

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