BIR adopts industry benchmarks

The Bureau of Internal Revenue is adopting industry benchmarks to help monitor taxpayers’ compliance as part of efforts to address revenue losses of about P218 billion yearly.

Revenue Commissioner Kim S. Henares said in a statement that the campaign would enable revenue enforcement officers to look into how taxpayers were meeting their liabilities.

“The benchmarking project will help increase taxpayers’ voluntary compliance by looking into their various declarations with the BIR,” Henares said.

She said the project would ensure that the BIR knew who the taxpayers were, whether they were registered and if they were reporting their true income and paying the correct amount of taxes.

Henares said with the use of industry benchmarks, the BIR could compare a certain taxpayer’s compliance level with standards that were established among taxpayers engaged in the same industry such as restaurants and real estate.

She added that using benchmarks would help the BIR identify which taxpayers should be audited first.

A taxpayer found to be below industry benchmarks will be issued a “benchmarking letter notice” to give him a chance to adjust and correct his tax returns and contest the BIR findings.

Makati City Regional Revenue Director Nestor S. Valeroso, the project proponent, said benchmarking would detect tax leakages and improve collections on value-added tax, income and other taxes.

“The tool will help plug the loopholes and increase tax collections,” Valeroso said.

He clarified that the benchmarks would not give rise to minimum tax payments but will only give a measure of how much a taxpayer within an industry should be paying.