Taxpayers told: Settle dues where convenient

Out of consideration amid tighter quarantine restrictions due to the spike in COVID-19 cases, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is allowing individual and corporate taxpayers to settle their dues in end-March and April “anywhere” for as long as they pay on time.

Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay said in Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 41-2021, issued on Monday that they hoped this relief would help as a more stringent lockdown “prompted establishments to operate at half their manpower capacity.”

“Thus, filing of returns as well as payment of taxes due thereon, falling within the period March 22 to April 30, 2021, may be made anywhere, even outside the jurisdiction of the revenue district office where they are registered,” Dulay said.

The ruling also covers the annual income tax returns for the year 2020 due for filing and payment on April 15.

The Department of Finance (DOF) has been lukewarm to extending the mandatory deadline even as corporate taxpayers are scrambling to adjust their 2020 payments to the lower rates provided under the newly signed Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Law.

Signed by President Duterte last Friday, CREATE Law retroactively reduced the income tax rate imposed on firms to 25 percent effective July 2020, from 30 percent previously. It also slashed the levy to an even lower 20 percent for micro, small and medium enterprises.

In lieu of an extended deadline, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Saturday said that “what we could consider is allowing the amendment of returns without penalty, then any excess payments can be carried over or refunded as provided in the Tax Code.”

In anticipation of the enactment of CREATE, the BIR had already prepared the implementing rules and regulations for publication, a DOF official said last week.

Dulay also enjoined taxpayers to digitally file their taxes through the eFPS facility and eBlRForms system, and then pay via the e-payment channels of authorized agent-banks. INQ