BIR collection up 6% in June

MANILA, Philippines - Tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue rose 6.04 percent to P94.12 billion in June as the agency  sustained its fierce campaign against tax cheats.

However, the tax collection for the month was still short of the official target of P107.4 billion as tax collections evasion remains rampant across sectors of the economy, particularly among big corporations as well as self-employed individuals and professionals.

The BIR said  there is a  slowdown in the growth of tax due to a deceleration in state spending and a decline in business activity arising from the problem of businesses not being able to have their goods released from the ports.

It likewise attributed the lower tax collection growth to poor tax compliance of corporations under the Large Taxpayer Service (LTS), particularly those in the financial and insurance sector.

Internal Revenue commissioner Kim Henares said large taxpayers are now subject to a tighter auditing by the agency to check whether they’re paying the right taxes which include the value-added tax.

 “The VAT Audit Group of the LTS have been reinvigorated and will work full time in implementing quality short VAT audit to correct taxpayer errors and detect violations with the end in view of improving VAT compliance.

Henares said the BIR would not hesitate to file tax evasion cases against those who would be found to have evaded tax payments.

Revenues from BIR operations reached P91.63 billion in June , up 6.2 percent from the same month a year ago.

Collections from non-BIR operations, on the other hand, amounted to P2.49 billion, P12.85 million or  0.52 percent higher than the amount recorded the previous year.

The regional offices generated revenues of P34.92 billion, 12.74 percent more than the collections made in June 2013.

The Large Taxpayers Service contributed P56.71 billion to the agency’s total revenues last month. The amount represents an increase of 2.53 percent from the year ago figure.

For the six months ending June this year, the BIR collected P643.21 billion, up 8.34 percent year on year. Collections from BIR operations went up by 8.68 percent to P624.71 billion while revenues from non-BIR operations fell by nearly two percent to P18.5 billion.

The government aims to boost income tax payments from the self-employed segment as part of efforts to shore up revenues.

The BIR estimates that there are 1.7 million self-employed professionals in the country.

To improve tax collections, the BIR will continue to implement revenue-generation measures which include the regular filing of tax evasion cases with the Department of Justice every two weeks.

So far, more than 270 tax delinquency cases have been filed with the justice department since the start of the Aquino administration. But majority of these cases remain lingering in courts.