BIR lowers goal for big taxpayers

MANILA, Philippines—In light of the new tax-exemption law approved by President Benigno Aquino III last February, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has brought down to P1.05 trillion its target collection from large taxpayers this year.

The slight cut from the earlier goal of P1.07 trillion was due to Republic Act No. 10653, which raised the tax-exempt cap on workers’ 13th-month pay and other benefits to P82,000, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares explained in Revenue Memorandum Order No. 5-2015 issued on Mar. 11.

Under the new order, the BIR’s Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) was tasked to collect a preliminary goal amounting P891.1 billion. Also directly allocated to the LTS was collecting P140.2 billion in excise taxes in 2015.

This year, the LTS was likewise to collect P9.18 billion in income tax from Malampaya operations as well as final withholding taxes of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas worth P9.56 billion.

The BIR defines large taxpayers as corporations with an authorized capitalization of at least P300 million registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission; multinational enterprises with authorized capitalization or assigned capital of at least P300 million; publicly listed corporations; universal, commercial and foreign banks; taxpayers with an 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.

As for small and individual taxpayers, the 19 revenue regions across the country was ordered to collect a total of P594.6 billion.

On top of the revenue regions’ collection goal of P593.9 billion in income taxes, they should also take in P276.3 million in excise taxes and P356.2 million in non-recurring collections.

The BIR’s revised total tax collection goal for 2015 is P1.67 trillion as recent government moves allowing workers to take home more pay made it impossible to collect the original target of P1.72 trillion.

Last year, the BIR’s total collections hit P1.34 trillion, 10-percent higher than the P1.22-trillion take in 2013, but 8-percent lower than the P1.46-trillion goal.