DOF orders BIR: Make tax paying more convenient

Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III has directed the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to make the process of paying taxes more convenient as he lauded the agency for pursuing reforms that have improved its revenue collections by almost 12 percent thus far this year.

At the same time, Dominguez said he expects the BIR, through its stepped-up joint efforts with the Bureau of Customs (BOC), to continue running after bigtime tax dodgers “with hammer and tongs”— like what it had done with Mighty Corp., which led to a tax settlement of over R25 billion, the country’s largest sum ever collected from a single corporate entity.

“Beyond helping improve revenue collections, the case of Mighty Corp. sends a clear and resounding message to other corporate entities that fudge the numbers and befuddle the books. The revenue agencies will go after them with hammer and tongs,” Dominguez said at the recent BIR Annual Planning Session held in Clark Freeport Zone in Angeles City, Pampanga.

Mighty Corp., a homegrown cigarette manufacturer, had offered to settle its tax liabilities for R25 billion and shut down its operations after the BIR filed several complaints for its use of counterfeit tax stamps before the Department of Justice.

It sold its assets to Japan Tobacco, Inc. (JTI), which enabled the government to collect even more taxes from VAT and other fees, bringing the total haul from the Mighty settlement to about R30 billion.

Moreover, excise tax payments from Mighty’s cigarette brands registered an increase of over 200 percent in the September-October, 2017 period alone since JTI took over the firm’s operations.

The year 2017 is an “extraordinary” one for the BIR, said Dominguez in a speech read to him by Finance Assistant Secretary Mark Dennis Joven.

“The crackdown on Mighty Corp. will have to be credited to the vigilant and unyielding effort of our revenue agencies. I look forward to other accomplishments like this one in the coming months,” he said.

Besides this remarkable accomplishment, the finance chief cited the BIR for being able to generate an “impressive” collection rate of 11.84 percent in the first three quarters of the year, and a goal attainment rate of 96.96 percent by continuing to implement tax administration reforms aimed at broadening the tax base, updating the schedules of zonal values, expanding the options for payment of taxes and simplifying tax forms.

“Let me congratulate Commissioner Caesar Dulay, the deputy commissioners and the officers of the BIR for the good work you have put in. I urge you to sustain the effort at completely modernizing tax administration in the country,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the BIR “must exert every effort not only at making the agency more efficient at what it does but also making the collections process more convenient for our clients, the taxpayers.”

“Paying taxes is painful enough for many of us. Let us minimize inconveniences in the process,” he said.