BIR wants tax amnesty application deadline extended

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has recommended the extension of the deadline for application for the ongoing tax amnesty program on delinquencies, while tax managers last week sought clarification on the one-month deadline extension for the filing of 2019 income tax returns.

Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel S.D. Guballa told the Inquirer last Friday that the BIR had already proposed to the Department of Finance (DOF) a 30-day extension of the April 24 deadline for the availment of tax amnesty under Republic Act No. 11213 or the Tax Amnesty Act of 2019.

The DOF has yet to respond to this BIR proposal, Guballa said.

The first-ever amnesty on tax delinquencies in the country, which began in April last year, cover all national taxes—capital gains tax, documentary stamp tax, donor’s tax, excise tax, income tax, percentage tax, value-added tax, and withholding tax—for taxable year 2017 and the previous years.

The DOF had estimated additional revenues from the one-year delinquencies amnesty to hit P21.26 billion.

A two-year estate tax amnesty under RA 11213 was also being offered since May last year.

Meanwhile, the Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP) Inc. (wrote to Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay on March 19 to clarify some items covered by Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 28-2020, which the BIR issued last week to extend the ITR-filing and payment deadline to May 15 instead of the Tax Code-mandated April 15 cutoff amid the community quarantines being implemented in Luzon and other parts of the country amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

For one, TMAP president Romeo H. Duran and vice president for internal affairs Priscilla B. Valer had asked Dulay about what the implications of RMC 28-2020 to the earlier issued RMC 25-2020, which enjoined filing tentative returns that taxpayers can amend and pay without penalties until June 15. —Ben O. de Vera INQ