BSP orders banks to extend operating hours to accommodate taxpayers

AHEAD of the 2015 income tax-filing deadline on April 15, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) ordered banks to extend their banking hours starting April 1.

In a March 17 memorandum, BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said all Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) authorized agent banks should operate up to 5 p.m. on April 1 to 15.

Banks were also authorized to render services from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on two Saturdays, March 19 and April 2.

The BIR said these two Saturdays were in exchange for the two non-working holidays before the deadline—Black Saturday (March 26) and Araw ng Kagitingan (April 9).

BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said in an earlier interview the BIR’s e-filing system was ready for the influx of taxpayers expected to file their ITRs close to the deadline.

Mandated to file through the BIR’s eFiling and Payment System (eFPS) were the following: Taxpayer Account Management Program taxpayers; those required to secure importer’s clearance certificates and broker’s clearance certificates from the BIR; national government agencies; licensed local contractors; and enterprises enjoying fiscal incentives from the Board of Investments and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, among other investment promotion agencies.

Also mandated to use the eFPS were the top 5,000 individual taxpayers, corporations with paid-up capital stock of P10 million and above, corporations with complete Computerized Accounting System, procuring government agencies withholding value-added tax (VAT) and percentage taxes, government bidders, large taxpayers, those belonging to the top 20,000 private corporations and insurance companies and stockbrokers.

Meanwhile, taxpayers mandated to file their tax returns using the eBIRForms were the following: accredited tax agents, practitioners and their clients; accredited printers of principal and supplementary receipts and invoices; One-Time Transaction (ONETT) taxpayers; those filing a “no payment” return; government-owned and/or -controlled corporations; local government units, except barangays; cooperatives registered with the Local Water Utilities Administration and the National Electrification Administration.

Under the Tax Code, those who have been mandated to file and pay electronically but failed to do so would be slapped a penalty of P1,000 per return and 25 percent of the tax due to be paid.

Non-compliant taxpayers would also be included in the BIR’s priority audit program.

This year, the BIR was tasked to collect a total of P2.026 trillion in taxes. Ben O. de Vera