BIR calls on taxpayers to file returns early

Pay your taxes early to avoid inconvenience.

This was the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) reminder to taxpayers months ahead of the deadline for filing returns.

In a statement, BIR Deputy Commissioner Nelson M. Aspe reminded the taxpaying public to file and pay the corresponding taxes as early as possible to avoid penalties, not to mention the inconvenience of late filing.

“[The BIR] appeals to all taxpayers not to wait for the April 15 tax-filing deadline, and start preparing and submitting their annual ITRs and its accompanying schedules and attachments (such as financial statements, statement of management’s responsibility, BIR Form No. 2307, etc.) as early as January 2016,” Aspe said.

Aspe reminded manual and electronic tax filers, as well as accredited tax agents who use the electronic BIR forms (eBIRForms) and the electronic filing and payment system (eFPS), to download their latest versions and file earlier than usual in order to avoid system downtime or technical difficulties.

The BIR said it was prepared for electronic filing, as Aspe noted that all their systems—the integrated tax system, eBIRForms, eFPS, among other eServices) underwent on Dec. 26 regular system maintenance as part of preparations for the tax-filing season as well as yearend adjustment.

Following complaints from taxpayers as well as tax managers during the 2014 filing season last April, the BIR granted a two-month extension for e-filing. It allowed the manual submission of no-payment returns until the deadline of ITR filing, after which taxpayers must re-file the returns electronically.

Last March, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares and Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima issued Revenue Regulations No. 5-2015, under which taxpayers who fail to submit their returns using eFPS or eBIRForms will be penalized with a P1,000 fine per return, as mandated under the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 or the Tax Code.

Noncompliant taxpayers will be slapped civil penalties equivalent to 25 percent of the tax to be paid “for filing a return in a manner not in compliance with existing regulations, thus, tantamount to wrong venue filing.”

Under RR 5-2015, required to e-file ITRs are accredited tax agents/practitioners and their client-taxpayers; accredited printers of principal and supplementary receipts/invoices; one-time transaction taxpayers (ONETT); government-owned and/or -controlled corporations; local government units, except barangays; and cooperatives registered with the Local Water Utilities Administration and the National Electrification Administration.

In September last year, the BIR issued RR 6-2014 mandating the use of eBIRForms when filing tax returns. eBIRForms is an application covering 36 BIR forms, such as income tax returns, excise tax forms, value-added tax or VAT forms, withholding tax forms, documentary stamp tax forms, percentage tax forms, ONETT forms and payment forms, among others.