More and more taxpayers have been settling their dues online and through apps nearly doubling Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collections through digital channels to P1.2 billion in 2019.
In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said the amount of taxes collected by the BIR through electronic channels in 2019 jumped 92 percent from P626.4 million in 2018.
The collections rose alongside a climb in the number of transactions—last year’s 446,753 electronic tax payments were three-fifths more than 2018’s 278,602, the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement on Thursday (Feb. 13).
Guballa said some of the electronic payments were done through online tax payment facilities of banks, like Union Bank, through ATMs or debit cards.
Other means by which taxes were paid were the PayMaya smartphone app and the PESONet fund transfer service, according to Guballa.
He said in 2020, among the BIR’s targets was to “further simplify its paper application forms and reduce processing times.”
The BIR, he added, also wanted to reduce the number of documentary requirements and signatories on tax documents to make paying taxes less of a cumbersome process and “help improve the ease of doing business.”
The BIR was embarking on a roadmap that will digitally transform the country’s biggest tax-collection agency to better serve taxpayers by 2030.
The BIR’s vision was to become a “digitally transformed institution.”
Such would provide “convenient, reliable and transparent services to taxpayers” which would lead to more revenue that would “provide comfortable and secure lives for Filipinos,” Guballa said.
The 2030 roadmap was the BIR’s response to Dominguez’s earlier order for the agency to make its transactions with clients instantaneous and seamless.
Under its 2030 roadmap, the BIR planned to streamline tax payments, further improve taxpayer experience and use automation for “anytime and anywhere” services for taxpayers by 2022.
Among the online systems that the BIR will develop through its digital transformation roadmap included e-invoicing and e-receipting, a value-added tax (VAT) refund system, fuel marking and testing, internal revenue stamps integrated system for alcohol, and digital versions of BIR forms.