Pawnshops are next BIR targets — Purisima

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Bureau of Internal Revenue is to investigate tax evasion in the pawnshop industry in light of statistics showing more than 1,000 pawnshops were not filing income tax returns at all, the Department of Finance said Tuesday.

Government records show that while 6,301 pawnshops were registered with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in 2012, only 5,230 were registered with the BIR and paid taxes, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said in a statement.

This means, he said, that at least 1,071 pawnshops did not file returns last year and, therefore, did not pay taxes.

“We want to raise awareness about tax payments and ask the public if the numbers we observe make sense,” Purisima said. “Why is it that we have 5,230 pawnshops that paid in 2012, but the BSP supervises 6,301.”

Purisima said average tax pament of each pawnshop fell to P315,812 last year from P363,085 in 2011.

He said the Department of Finance would start releasing statistics about tax payments to show to the public the extent of the tax evasion problem and demonstrate the government’s resolve to catch tax cheats, and to encourage people to pay the right taxes.

He said discrepancies between tax payments and the number of registered businesses also may be found among restaurants and other industries.

“You can run but you cannot hide from Commissioner Henares,” Purisima said, refering to BIR chief Kim Henares.