BIR plans to implement alcohol tax stamp in H2

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) hopes to start affixing tax stamps on alcoholic beverages by the second half of the year, Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said.

Henares told reporters last week that the BIR should start implementing the Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (Irsis) for alcohol products and distilled spirits in the “latter part” of the year.

The BIR chief earlier identified Irsis on alcohol products as one of the agency’s priority programs for 2015.

It would entail affixing tax stamps on liquor, similar to an ongoing program on tobacco, “to ensure the collection of correct excise taxes on alcohol products” under the Sin Tax Reform Law.

Henares said the BIR would seek a different printer for the stamp on alcoholic goods. The agency hopes to avoid confusion by seeking a design for alcohol tax different from that of tobacco stamps.

APO Production Unit Inc., a government-run printing office, is churning out the cigarette tax stamps.

The tax stamps on cigarettes have a “butanding” or whale shark design on pink or yellow stamps, depending on the price of the product.

Henares said the implementation of Irsis on tobacco products has already been approved.

Under the BIR’s Revenue Regulations No. 9-2014, all packs of cigarettes produced in the country since Dec. 1 last year must be affixed with tax stamps before they are sold in the market by March 1 this year.

As for imported cigarettes, all packs must bear tax stamps starting April 1. Ben O. de Vera