BIR misses target

The Bureau of Internal Revenue collected P157.36 billion in taxes last May, missing its target for the month by a tenth, the latest Department of Finance data showed.

The actual take of the country’s biggest tax-collection agency last month was 10.12-percent lower than the P175.09-billion goal, although 3.44-percent higher than the P152.14 billion collected in May last year.

The bulk of collection worth P154.19 billion was contributed by BIR operations, of which P104.29 billion was from the large taxpayers’ service on top of P49.9 billion from revenue regions.

The share of non-BIR operations amounted P3.18 billion.

Both the collections from BIR operations and non-BIR operations missed their respective targets of P171.31 billion and P3.78 billion.

Year-on-year, collections from BIR operations rose 3.51 percent while those from non-BIR operations declined by 0.2 percent.

At the end of the first five months, the BIR’s tax take rose 9.09 percent to P719.95 billion from P659.964 billion a year ago.

However, the BIR also missed by 5.18 percent its five-month collection target of P759.29 billion.

From January to May, collections from BIR operations reached P704.22 billion, up 9.27 percent year-on-year but 4.49-percent below target. The take from non-BIR operations increased 1.59 percent year-on-year to P15.737 billion, which was 28.35-percent off target.

Last week, the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee cut the BIR’s 2017 collection target to P1.78 trillion from P1.83 trillion previously.

To achieve this year’s target, which was equivalent to almost four-fifths of the government’s tax revenue program of P2.26 trillion, the BIR plans to improve taxpayer compliance through the expansion of its compromise settlement program for audit cases of large taxpayers.

Also among the BIR’s priority programs for 2017 aimed at attaining the collection target include the continuous implementation of the Run After Tax Evaders (Rate) as well as “Oplan Kandado” programs; comprehensive taxpayer profiling and industry benchmarking; updating of zonal value schedules; broadening of the tax base without increasing the tax rates by registering unregistered taxpayers/businesses as a result of tax compliance verification drives and third-party information; implementation of centralized arrears management in regional offices as well as adherence to the cross-border agreements on exchange of information such as the US’s Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (Fatca).

To improve taxpayer satisfaction, the BIR will continue to review previous revenue issuances and rulings as well as repeal those that impose an unnecessary burden on taxpayers and hinder business transactions.