BIR opens first ‘medium taxpayers service’ office in Quezon City

THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) opened its first medium taxpayers service off ice in Quezon City last week, with a mandate to closely monitor compliance in the intermediate levels of the tax base.

According to BIR Assistant Commissioner Marissa O. Cabreros, the off ice will help to reduce tax filing congestion in the tax bureau’s main office — where the large taxpayer service (LTS) holds off ice.

The transfer of “medium” taxpayers to the regional offices will relieve the LTS of about 3,000 accounts.

“It cannot handle all of this at the national office, we have a lot of offices so we will be utilizing the regions to monitor the other taxpayers,” she told reporters.

Ms. Cabreros said that medium taxpayers account for some 17-19% of the BIR’s revenue, while the large taxpayers on the other hand represent roughly 60% of overall collections.

“It’s really a huge database. So more or less we will be able to project if there is unusual behavior in the economy,” she said.

“If ever collections are down, at least we know who to focus on, what industry, why collections fell, what happened, are there patterns we can recognize and apply to other areas to improve on their collection,” Ms. Cabreros added.

In Revenue Memorandum Order 17- 207 dated July, BIR commissioner Caesar R. Dulay authorized the creation of regional offices to service medium taxpayers. —