BIR allows paying taxes in banks outside RDO amid MECQ

MANILA, Philippines — Amid a modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) which still restricted movement of people, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is allowing taxpayers to settle their dues outside their revenue district office (RDO) until June 14.

To comply with the deadline for 2019 income tax returns (ITRs), Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay said taxpayers may “file the tax return and pay internal revenue taxes at the nearest authorized agent-banks, notwithstanding RDO jurisdiction.”

Also, they may file their tax returns and pay the corresponding taxes due to revenue collection officers (RCOs) of the closest RDO, even in areas with agent-banks, Dulay said in Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 48-2020 issued on Friday.

The BIR will allow leniency “provided that payment of internal revenue taxes in cash should not exceed P20,000, while those for check payment will have no limitation if the same is made with RCO in the district office until June 14.”

Also, all checks must be payable to BIR, with or without “IFO name and TIN of the taxpayer” written on the check as earlier required, even as the name of receiving agent-bank branch may no longer be indicated in the check for tax payment, the BIR said.

As for BIR employees who will receive these payments, they should adhere to the social distancing restrictions imposed by the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF), the BIR added.

Last Friday, the BIR published Revenue Regulations (RR) 12-2020 signed by Dulay and Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III, which repealed the section in the earlier-issued RR 11-2020 automatically extending tax deadlines by 15 days whenever COVID-19 quarantine periods were prolonged.

As such, the June 14 deadline to pay and file 2019 ITRs stays, among other deadlines listed down in RR 11-2020, “regardless of any extension or modification of quarantine,” the BIR said.

Since June 14 fell on a Sunday, the actual cut-off date shall be June 15, Monday, under RR 11-2020.

RR 11-2020 had also moved to June 22 the final day to avail of the ongoing tax amnesty on delinquencies, from the original April 23 deadline and the two previous extensions to May 23 and June 8 following the longer ECQ periods.

Aside from the ITR and tax amnesty deadlines, RR 11-2020 had likewise adjusted cut-off dates for 48 other transactions and documents, including value-added tax (VAT) refunds, and tax credit/refund applications, among others.

Last week, Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel S.D. Guballa told the Inquirer that the BIR will longer further extend tax deadlines despite the implementation of MECQ in COVID-19 hotspots since May 16 because “the government needs funds.”

Amid a recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) last week further slashed the government’s 2020 tax and non-tax revenue collection goal to P2.61 trillion from the projection of P3.17 trillion in March.

The Department of Finance (DOF) this week reported that the BIR’s collections last April amounted only P71.78 billion, a 69.8-percent drop from P237.93 billion a year ago.

From January to April, the BIR’s tax take slid 25.4 percent year-on-year to P527.41 billion.

The BIR is the country’s biggest tax-collection agency, contributing almost four-fifths to the total haul.

As such, DOF and BIR officials had called on taxpayers to no longer wait for the extended deadlines and settle their dues as soon as possible.