BIR-CAR exceeds tax collection target

BAGUIO CITY: The Cordillera office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR-CAR) exceeded its tax collection goal for 2021 amid the Covid-19 pandemic that heavily impacted the local economy.

BIR-CAR Regional Director Douglas Rufino said that the bureau was able to collect more than P5.9 billion in various taxes last year compared to the P5.5 billion projected tax collection target which is equivalent to around 8 percent excess tax collection.

Further, last year’s tax collection is more than 15 percent higher compared to the more than P5.2 billion in taxes that was collected by the bureau in 2020.

Rufino explained that the bulk of the taxes that were collected by the bureau last year is from the taxes withheld by government agencies and local governments that hired a significant number of employees and purchased a huge volume of goods that were used to cater to the needs of the people at the height of the pandemic.

Based on the data obtained from the BIR-CAR’s collection department, more than P3.6 billion was classified as income taxes, P1.6 billion came from value-added tax, more than P459 million are percentage taxes, more than P376 million fell under other forms of taxes and more than P11 million were collected from excise tax.

From January to April this year, the BIR-CAR was able to collect more than P2.388 billion in various taxes compared to the target tax collection of at least P2.388 billion or an excess of nearly P700 million in collected taxes.

The BIR-CAR official said that there has been an increase in the taxes that were collected by the bureau for each of the four quarters last year despite the implementation of stricter community quarantine restrictions to contain the spread of the deadly virus.

For 2022, Rufino disclosed that the bureau’s tax collection target was pegged by the central office to be more than P7.109 billion.

Rufino vowed to exceed the bureau’s tax collection target in the region for this year.