GMA taps SGV veteran for new top BIR post

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo has appointed Joel Tan-Torres, a former partner at the Sycip Gorres & Velayo auditing firm as the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s first ever Senior Deputy Commissioner.

In an Executive Order dated Aug. 14, Arroyo created the BIR’s Office of the Senior Deputy Commissioner.

According to the order, the Senior Deputy Commissioner shall provide support to the BIR chief in administering the operations of the agency, provide policies and pursue programs in the strategic and tactical aspects of tax administration to enhance taxpayer service and to improve the performance of the agency’s Large Taxpayers Service.

Tan-Torres, who held various positions in the BIR from 1980 to 1996, said he plans to focus on “developing the long-term capability of the BIR.”

Other duties of the Senior Deputy Commissioner, according to the EO, include conducting regular assessments of the public’s perception of the BIR activities, formation of a Tax Academy or Training Institute, conducting enforcement activities directed at major transactions that have significant tax potential and initiating practical internationally accepted tax administration trends and practices.

Prior to his appointment, Tan-Torres, a topnotcher in the 1979 Certified Public Accountant board exams, was with the SGV as senior partner from 1998 to March 2009 and as director from 1996 to 1998.

His expertise includes international taxation, tax services for various firms, family wealth planning and tax advisory services for government agencies.

The President said the creation of the Office of the Senior Deputy Commissioner was necessary because the BIR Commissioner “already has an enormous responsibility of leading the agency in tax collection and administration efforts.”

Asked if he was consulted by Malacanang regarding the appointment, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said he was aware of it but declined to elaborate on the creation of the new BIR office.

Government sources said Teves and BIR Commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV are at loggerheads over the agency’s Oplan Kandado program, which was put in place by Esquivias. Under the program, the BIR padlocks business establishments that do not pay the right amount of taxes.

Esquivias rarely attends Teves’ monthly fiscal performance briefings but the two officials have denied that they do not have a healthy working relationship.