BIR expands mobile payment platform

Three days before the deadline on filing income taxes, the Bureau of Internal Revenue ( BIR) expanded its existing mobile payment platform by launching a cellphone app for bigger settlements.

“The ease of paying taxes is among those that has been at the centerstage of ease of doing business,” BIR deputy commissioner Nelson Aspe said in a briefing yesterday.

BIR and GXchange Inc., a subsidiary of Globe Telecom, encourages taxpayers to use the GCash app already available for download in Android phones and in iOS “in two weeks.”

The app, deputy commissioner Lilia Guillermo said, is an improved version of the agency’s GCash facility first launched in 2005 through text messaging system.

“Back in 2005, we already had GCash but it was not very palatable with taxpayers because it is too hard to text...Now, it’s a different mobile application and everybody knows how to download,” Guillermo said in the same briefing.

Around two million active GCash subscribers can now access 45 different tax forms covering transactions worth P100,000 or below. Previously, the cap was set only at P10,000.

Taxpayers could pay their dues 24 hours a day, seven days a week, provided they have input their information ahead with e-BIR forms, the bureau’s electronic filing system.

“That (e-BIR forms) can be downloaded as well and all they need is put their e-mail. We changed it from last year when you had to register,” Guillermo said.

Those paying using the app will need to input first their four-digit GCash mobile PIN, and click “BIR” under the “pay bills” tab.

Users will then be required to input their taxpayers’ tax identification number, a threedigit branch code for corporate taxpayers, the amount they are paying and select the BIR form they would like to use.

A P10 service fee is charged per transaction. After payment, a confirmation text message will be sent to the taxpayer’s mobile number.

“On Friday, we are going to deploy teams in RDOs (revenue district offices) to assist people who may want to try the product,” GXchange Inc. chief executive officer Albert Tinio said.

Aspe said the BIR is ready for the influx of taxpayers on April 15. “Compared to last year, the preparation is better,” he said.

Guillermo, for her part, said the bureau is open to partnering with other service providers to expand mobile tax payments. “Right now, there are no talks,” she said.

BIR, which accounts for around 80 percent of state tax revenues, has been embarking on different IT initiatives to make tax payments easier.

This year, it issued a regulation that allows taxpayers to pay income duties using debit and credit cards.

Income taxes account for the biggest share of BIR collections each year. In 2015, it cornered P846.20 billion or 58.7 percent of the bureau’s total haul of P1.44 trillion.

The bureau, which accounts for around 80 percent of state tax revenues, targets to collect P1.19 trillion in income taxes this year. Its entire target amounts to P2.03 trillion this year.