BIR Cebu puts hopes on upbeat economy

The Bureau of Internal Revenue-13 in Cebu City is putting its hopes on Cebu's expanding economic activity as key to boost its collection this year.

BIR-13 regional director Aynie Dizon said the growing economy of Cebu is a significant factor in the agency's revenue generation growth.

"We are expecting more collection from the real estate industry," Dizon told The FREEMAN.

BIR-13 is yet to report its collection target for 2018.

The official said Cebu's growing property sector presents revenue potential to the agency.

The revenues come from the sale of condominium units, house and lots and townhouses in the form of capital gains and documentary stamp taxes.

Cebu's construction boom, including building and road constructions, is also another revenue opportunity for the agency, Dizon said.

She said that another promising sector that's seen to help boost tax collection this year is manufacturing.

Likewise, the tax agency is also setting its sights on the hotel and restaurant businesses which are booming in Cebu.

Hotel and restaurant businesses are VAT (valueadded tax) taxpayers.

Furthermore, the retail sector is also seen as a promising revenue source.

BIR-13 fell short of its collection goal last year although taxes it collected in 2017 grew significantly from 2016.

Initial data showed 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.

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

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 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, BIR13 is looking to increase the number to 1,500 to eventually increase the tax contribution of the group to more than 50 percent.