BIR likely missed tax collection goal in ’14

The Bureau of Internal Revenue. AFP FILE PHOTO

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) likely missed its tax collection goal for 2014, Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said last week.

“I do not think we hit our [2014] target,” Henares said in a text message. The final figures will be known by the end of the first quarter this year.

The BIR was aiming to collect P1.456 trillion last year. For December, alone, the agency was targeting tax collection of P114.1 billion.

Henares explained that the BIR’s targets were being set at levels that would push the agency to work harder.

“Our attitude about our goals is that they are something we will work hard to achieve,” she said.

Data released by the Department of Finance’s (DOF) Bureau of the Treasury last week showed that the BIR’s collections last November slid by 4 percent to P121.9 billion from the P126.5 billion collected in the same month in 2013.

November’s haul was also lower than the target for the month of P152 billion.

At the end of the first 11 months of 2014, the BIR’s tax take rose by 9 percent to P1.22 trillion from P1.12 trillion in the same 11-month period of the previous year.

Actual end-November collections, however, were below the projected P1.342 trillion for the 11-month period.

The BIR is among the biggest revenue collection agencies under the DOF. The other is the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

The BOC already conceded last December that its collection targets for last year and this year could not be attained even as end-November figures climbed 17.8 percent to P331.2 billion.

Customs was tasked to collect P408.1 billion in duties and taxes in 2014 and P456 billion this year.