Taxpayers urged to file before Easter holidays

TAXPAYERS will be able to file their tax returns until April 17 without penalty, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), which nevertheless urged the public to file their returns before the Easter holidays.

The traditional April 15 tax filing deadline falls on Black Saturday this year.

According to the BIR spokesperson, lawyer Marissa O. Cabreros, an order off icially clarifying the tax filing deadline as April 17 is already in the pipeline for the Commissioner of Internal Revenue’s approval, and may be released sometime this week.

In light of the tax filing season next month, Ms. Cabreros said that the BIR’s challenge remains the last-minute filing of taxpayers, despite the availability of electronic tax filing and payment.

Ms. Cabreros urged taxpayers to file their returns early, to avoid congestion in the BIR’s servers the week prior and during Holy Week, when high volumes are expected.

“The more traffic, the more slowly the information gets to us, the slower we process. So our appeal has always been ‘ do not wait for April 15, if things are ready now, file it now,’” said Ms. Cabreros in a phone interview yesterday.

“Plus that week is Holy Week, we are also encouraging those availing of electronic filing to process the returns early, so that our system won’t be clogged,” she added.

Ms. Cabreros said that majority of the taxpayers have shifted to BIR’s e- Filing and Payment System and e-BIR Forms — enabling them to process and pay their tax obligations online, or directly through the bank, without having to go to revenue district off ices.

“The taxpayers have seen the benefits of e-filing from two years ago, even if they initially opposed it. All our revenue district off ices have also been equipped with [ electronic] lounges,” said Ms. Cabreros.

“For the past two years, we’ve managed to have no physical queuing. It has been addressed already, we have massive e-filing requirements. The only challenge is for the system not to be choked by lastminute traffic,” said Ms. Cabreros.

In an earlier memorandum circular, Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay requested Authorized Agency Banks to stay open two Saturdays immediately prior to April 15, and extend banking hours from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

The memorandum also advised the authorized banks to apply the extended hours on April 17.

The last banking day of Easter week falls on April 12, Wednesday.

The BIR is tasked to collect P1.829 trillion this year, 12.9% more than its downward-adjusted P1.62 trillion target in 2016. —