BIR warns car importers on tax payments

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has given owners of imported vehicles until the end of this month to pay their taxes and secure the necessary release document or else have their cars seized.

“It has been observed that a significant number of motor vehicles were released without the required Authority to Release Imported Goods (ATRIG) which can be seized by the BIR under existing rules. However, for practical considerations and for lack of logistical provisions at the BIR, and in order to regularize their documents, imported automobiles that were released from customs custody may still be issued ATRIGs until March 31,” Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said in Revenue Regulations No. 2-2016 dated March 4.

The BIR defines an ATRIG as the “authority issued by the BIR, addressed to the commissioner of [the Bureau of] Customs, allowing the release of imported goods from customs custody upon payment of applicable taxes, or proof of exemption from payment thereof, whichever is applicable.”

Henares said applications for ATRIG have to be filed with the BIR’s Excise LT Regulatory Division while the excise and value-added taxes have to be paid ahead of the deadline.

The taxes to be levied on imported vehicles will be based on the manufacturer or importer’s selling price at the time of importation, including 50-percent surcharge and 20-percent interest as reckoned from the date of final import entry and internal revenue declaration, she said.

“All imported automobiles found to have been released from customs custody after March 31 without the required ATRIG shall be subject to seizure” under the Tax Code, Henares warned.

The BIR chief explained that any release of excisable goods without the requisite ATRIG implied that “the taxes due thereon were not paid or not paid properly.”

“The excisable product, having been withdrawn from any such place or from customs custody or imported into the country without the payment or proper payment of the required taxes may be detained by any revenue officer in accordance with Section 172 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC), and if warranted, subsequently forfeited, pursuant to Section 268(C) of the NIRC,” Henares said.

“The person/s responsible for the same shall be held liable for unlawful possession or removal without payment of tax pursuant to Section 263 of the NIRC,” she added. Ben O. de Vera