BIR e-filing, payment system for contractors now in place

CEBU, Philippines - All licensed local contractors are now mandated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue to enroll themselves to the electronic filing and payment system (EFPS) to be done at the Revenue District Office where they are registered as “taxpayers”.

Department of Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima issued the order under BIR Revenue Regulations No. 10-2012 dated June 1, 2012 entitled “Joint Venture or Consortium Formed for the Purpose of Undertaking Constructions Projects and Mandatory Enrollment of Local Contractors in the EFPS”.

The system is available to selected taxpayers with e-mail account and internet access who are registered in the BIR Integrated Tax System, allowing them to directly encode, submit their tax returns and pay their taxes due online over the Internet through the BIR website.

Janizze Sameon-Tuñacao, BIR- Cebu contact center officer-in-charge, said in an interview that such mandatory has been the national office directive among BIR regional and district offices in the country.

She added that compared to the manual process which is considered to be a “tedious” task, EFPS enables easier monitoring and quick access on the release of payments and returns and issuance of clearance to bidders.

She further noted that the electronic filing is being managed by the bureau itself while the payment system is handled by the banks.

“Whereas if electronic, the filing and payment of tax returns are shown real-time in the national office and the payments would be electronically made through their respective banks,” Tuñacao stated.

However, she then clarified that the transparency of the system can only be accessed by the owner of the account and the national office personnel.

“Not all has the access, not all could see just by logging in our system, even the simple “Juan”,” she said.

She added that with the system, it’s easier to retrieve the records, however only the account owner and the national officers if returns were filed or if payment has been made.

As of now, she added that the most recent additive to list of the taxpayers who are mandated to file tax returns and pay taxes due through EFPS facility is the joint venture or consortium formed for the purpose of undertaking construction projects along with large taxpayers, all government bidders, local government units, the registered taxpayers of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority, bank borrowers, stock brokers, corporations with paid-up capital stock of ten million pesos, corporations with complete computerized system, taxpayers belonging to the list of the top 20,000 private corporations, and taxpayers belonging to the top 5,000 individual taxpayers.

Tuñacao revealed that aside from those mentioned under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 69-2009 dated December 7, 2009, there are also taxpayers, either individual or corporate, who voluntarily go online through EFPS since they can do such processes in their offices at their most convenient time.

Meanwhile, joint ventures to be considered not taxable as corporations are those involved in the undertaking of a construction project, joining or pooling of resources by licensed local contractors who are engaged in the construction business, and the joint venture itself must likewise be duly licensed as such by the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board of the DTI.

The member to a joint venture not taxable as corporation shall each be responsible in reporting and paying appropriate income taxes on their respective share to the joint ventures profit.  (FREEMAN)