BIR 13 misses 2017 collection target

The Bureau of Internal Revenue-13 in Cebu City fell short of its collection goal in 2017, preliminary figures showed yesterday, although taxes it collected last year grew significantly from 2016.

In a phone interview with The FREEMAN yesterday, BIR-13 regional director Aynie Mandajoyan-Dizon disclosed the agency collected P27.53 billion in taxes last year, falling short by 6 percent of its P29.3-billion target for the year.

But last year's collection grew by 14 percent compared to the P24.17-billion collection in 2016.

"Over last year (2016) we are up by P3.36 billion or 14 percent; versus goal we are short so far by P1.85 billion or 6 percent," the revenue official said.

Dizon said last year’s collection deficiency may still decrease as collections continue to upload in its system but it's unlikely the agency could still hit the 2017 target.

"We expect to decrease the deficiency but not exceed yet goal anymore," the revenue director said.

Its Revenue Data Center is set to release the final collection figure on Jan. 11.

One factor Dizon attributed to last year's collection performance was that there were no big-time transactions made in 2017.

She, however, described the collection as substantial considering the 14 percent increase.

In December, BIR-13 launched its segmentation of medium taxpayers which is seen to help its collection efficiency improve.

Dizon had said the expected growth in medium taxpayers' contribution to revenue collection could be attributed to the increase in business sales and transactions, and improved monitoring of their compliance.

The Taxpayers Segmentation Forum was aimed to orient its medium taxpayers and discuss issues and concerns to maximize their tax compliance.

The said top 500 taxpayers comprise the Medium Taxpayers Segment (MTS) of the region.

They are technically large taxpayers without the requisite notification from the revenue commissioner to be enlisted and classified as such large taxpayer.

The creation of the MTS in the region is largely intended to strengthen and expand the coverage of the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) of the BIR.

During its initial implementation, the project will cover the top 500 nonindividual taxpayers.

In the next five years, BIR-13 is looking to increase the number to 1,500 to eventually increase the tax contribution of the group to more than 50 percent.

BIR 13 implemented a seven-point program to help boost its collection last year.

One of the programs was massive tax compliance verification drive (doorto-door spot checking) which aims to identify establishments that are not yet registered with the BIR. Others include the intensified tax data matching; benchmarking for industries; point-ofsale (POS) post evaluation; inventory stock taking; enforcement activities; and surveillance activities.

BIR-13 collects taxes in Cebu and Bohol through five revenue district offices.