BIR: Only 24.9 percent of large taxpayers paid ahead of June 15 deadline

Only almost a fourth of firms that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) had registered as large taxpayers were able to settle their 2019 tax dues ahead of the extended June 15 deadline.

The BIR—the country’s biggest tax-collection agency—expressed hope that all corporate and individual taxpayers complied with the extended deadline to file and pay 2019 income tax returns (ITRs) because the government needed money badly to finance COVID-19 response.

Internal Revenue Deputy Commissioner Arnel S.D. Guballa told the Inquirer on Monday (June 15) that of the 2,755 companies registered with the BIR as large taxpayers, 24.9 percent filed and paid their ITRs before Monday’s deadline.

These firms, which no longer waited for the June 15 cut-off, already settled a total of P42.197 billion in taxes, Guballa said.

Under BIR rules, large taxpayers included these corporations:

• Those with authorized capitalization of at least P300 million registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
• Multinational enterprises with authorized capitalization or assigned capital of at least P300 million
• Publicly-listed corporations
• Universal, commercial and foreign banks
• Taxpayers with authorized capitalization of at least P100 million belonging to the banking, insurance, petroleum, telecommunications, utilities, alcohol and tobacco industries; and corporate taxpayers engaged in production of metallic minerals

Under the Tax Code, the mandatory deadline for filing and payments of the previous year’s ITR was every April 15.

But enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), which sent the economy to paralysis and restricted movement of people, prompted the BIR to move the deadline first to May 15.

The BIR again pushed back the deadline to May 30 when the ECQ was first extended to April 30, and then to the latest June 15 cut-off date when the quarantine was prolonged until May 15.

Despite the modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) during the latter half of May and the current general community quarantine (GCQ) implemented since June 1, the BIR no longer extended the ITR due date because the government needed funds.

Amid a COVID-19-induced recession, the BIR’s tax take from January to April dropped 20.5 percent year-on-year to P559.3 billion.

In April alone, collections slid 61.6 percent to P90.5 billion, even as, historically, the BIR’s collection surge during the month due to the mandatory ITR-filing and payment deadline.

TSB