The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is giving taxpayers more time to avail themselves of an amnesty on unpaid taxes and moving other tax deadlines in the wake of the COVID-19 quarantine blanketing the entire Luzon island.
In an order, Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay amended an order he issued in 2019 which set the deadline to settle unpaid taxes to April 23, 2020.
The order allowed the government to extend the deadline “if the circumstances warranted an extension such as in the case of countrywide economic or health reason.”
After amending the order, Dulay on Tuesday (March 24) issued a new deadline for unpaid taxes, May 23, or another 30 days from the original deadline.
The first-ever amnesty on delinquencies, which started in April 2019, covered all national taxes—capital gains tax, documentary stamp tax, donor’s tax, excise tax, income tax, percentage tax, value-added tax (VAT), and withholding tax—for the taxable years 2017 and earlier years.
The DOF had estimated additional revenues from the one-year delinquency amnesty to reach P21.26 billion.
The order issued by the BIR on Monday (March 23) extended the deadline for filing of certificate of residence for tax treaty relief forms (CORTT) until April 30 without penalties for final withholding taxes on dividends, interests and royalties paid on or before March 10.
An order issued in 2018 mandated expats and nonresidents to submit CORTT forms within 30 days after tax payment.
Also issued on Monday was an order extending by another 30 days from the lifting of the quarantine the period for filing of five types of correspondence and documents by taxpayers.
The BIR also issued another order to clarify “inadvertent errors” on extended deadlines and due dates for tax filing and payments in an order issued last week.
The BIR also issued a bulletin to authorize agent-banks to accept tax payments and not impose penalties during the quarantine period.