BIR misses revenue goal for 3rd straight month

The Bureau of Internal Revenue collected P95.55 billion in May, falling short of its target for the third month in a row.

According to BIR data released Friday, May collection was 9.3 percent, or P8.9 billion, lower than the P104.48-billion goal set for the month.

On the other hand, last month’s yield was 7.3 percent, or P6.4 billion, higher than the P88.16 billion collected in May 2011.

With the tax inflows in May, collections for the first five months of the year totaled P440.81 billion. The BIR missed its 5-month collection target of P459.96 billion by 4.3 percent, or P19.15 billion.

Even then, revenues in the first five months was 12.7 percent, or P49.72 billion, higher than the P391.09 billion posted in the same period of 2011.

“Collections from the regional offices have consistently showed double-digit growth,” the BIR said in a statement. “For the first five months, collections … increased by 20.39 percent.”

The BIR said that in May alone, regional offices turned in a total of P29.09 billion, 24.2 percent more than that of a year ago.

As for the Large Taxpayer Service, collections reached P63.17 billion, which was P1.21 billion, or 2 percent, more than the year-ago level.

The BIR said the LTS performance for the month was affected by a decrease in reported sales, and an increase in reported costs of sales and expenses by some taxpayers.

“In view of this, [the BIR] will be conducting short period audits on some of its large taxpayers to determine the veracity, accuracy and truth of the figures they reported,” the agency said.

“This is in addition to the on-going monitoring by the regional offices of the tax compliance of sole proprietors and professionals.”