BIR surprise

The business community is reeling from yet another tax shocker, courtesy of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and its dogged pursuit of higher collections.

We learned that the BIR recently issued a revenue regulation (No. 18-2013, to be exact) that effectively removed the requirement for a so-called “informal conference” between tax collectors and company officials before a formal tax assessment notice is issued to the company.

If this sounds like an innocuous change to you, consider that many companies regularly take issue with tax assessments handed down by BIR officials and the informal conference is often used as a venue for company officials to clarify why they are being dunned so-and-so amount.

With RR 18-2013, that informal meeting is now a thing of the past.

The new regulation also gives the taxpayer 15 days from the receipt of a so-called preliminary assessment notice (PAN) to respond. If he doesn’t, he is automatically considered to be in default. Being in default means the taxpayer will received a Formal Letter of Demand and a Final Assessment Notice calling for the payment of the tax deficiency and penalties.

The taxpayer could, of course, protest the assessment with the BIR. However, any request for reconsideration or reinvestigation must be accompanied by additional evidence and must state which law or regulation he is basing his protest on.

If there are several issues involved in the tax assessment and only a portion is being contested by the taxpayer, the other undisputed issues will immediately become final, executory and demandable.

According to one tax practitioner, the BIR’s goal in releasing the regulation is to have quicker cash turnover as well as to reduce the discretion on the part of examiners (we all know that hanky panky can happen during these negotiations).

“The problem is that BIR assessments can be so out of this world sometimes that you need that leeway to get clarity out of the examiners,” said our source. “The deadlines are just too tight.”

By the way, speaking of tight deadlines, the regulation is set to become effective on Dec. 15. Boom. Daxim L. Lucas

High-tech surgery

Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is now the in-thing in healthcare in western countries. But in a less advanced country like the Philippines, less than 20 percent of locally executed surgeries are MIS.

The group of businessman Manuel V. Pangilinan, operator of a growing chain of premium hospitals, aims to change this and is grooming the Cardinal Santos Medical Center in San Juan to be a hub for MIS. Cardinal Santos is about to complete a new building called PCAS—Philippine Center for Advanced Surgery—which is intended to be the center for MIS training, says Augie Palisoc Jr., executive director of Metro Pacific Investment Corp.’s hospital group.

In conventional brain surgery for instance, skull removal as well as cutting and navigation through brain tissue to reach the targeted area will take hours. Patients usually stay for as long as a week in the hospital and will be unable to work for as long as six weeks.

At present, Palisoc says many Filipino doctors have to go to Singapore or Vietnam to undergo MIS training. But this center will have a “dry” and “wet” lab. The “dry” lab is where the surgeon hones his surgery skills in a video arcade-like facility. The “wet” lab is where they will be able to practice on live subjects, initially on pigs.

The center will also have conference facilities. Harnessing synergy within the MVP group, the hospital will tie up with PLDT to beam the surgery to other parts of the Philippines.

“It’s an exciting project to promote minimally invasive surgery. In one or two days, the patient is out and productive again, instead of being out for weeks,” Palisoc said. Doris C. Dumlao

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