Hefti wants to prioritize tax evasion cases

Internal Revenue Commissioner Lilian Hefti has issued a revenue order prioritizing all tax evasion cases over other regular cases pending before the agency.

Hefti said Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) 24-08 gives Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) cases precedence over all other regular tax cases being handled in the national and regional offices of the BIR.

The BIR chief said that by prioritizing RATE cases, the government would be closer to meeting its commitments to the US Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC).

The revenue order follows a memorandum order issued by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves directing the BIR “to give utmost priority to its RATE and fraud cases with the end view of improving total collection by instilling the ‘fear factor’ on tax evaders.”

BIR Deputy Commissioner for Legal and Inspection Group Gregorio V. Cabantac, who heads the RATE program, is optimistic the program would be better implemented.

“We are optimistic that these new orders prioritizing RATE cases will boost our campaign for a two-pronged approach to revenue collection, which is voluntary tax collection by the public, coupled with a fear factor approach in running after tax evaders to show that the BIR means business,” he said.

At present, the Philippines is a threshold country under the MCC program but the MCC board said the Philippines can now apply for a compact status by presenting a five-year program that would sustain its fight against corruption and its fight against poverty.

The MCC board has said that countries selected as eligible for a large-scale grant, or compact have the opportunity to submit a proposal for five-year program to reduce poverty through sustainable economic growth.

The amount of grant the Philippines may get may range anywhere between $65 million to $698 million, depending on the program that would be submitted by the government.