Kim Henares: The tax woman cometh

We all pay taxes. (Or rather, we should all be paying taxes.) It is a pain to pay our monthly VAT and EWHT, and more so our annual tax every April. It is now one woman’s job to be on top of making sure we all file and pay the correct taxes, as well as go after tax evaders and grafters. She is only the third woman to head the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and it is her job to meet the P1.066 trillion collection target this year. We all saw her as the calm, collected, sharp commissioner on the witness stand at the impeachment trial of the Chief Justice. But her life is much more colorful, and cooler, than just numbers. Here are 10 things you should know about BIR Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares.

1. She was a topnotcher in the qualifying exam for accountancy, second honors upon completion of her law degree, and was a B student in Georgetown.

“I was just an average student, a B student,” she humbly says of her Masters in Law in Georgetown. She took up accounting in De La Salle University, then law in Ateneo, before going to Georgetown. She attributes her being good with numbers to the advanced math classes she had in Chinese school growing up, and her interest in law to her high school days when “in our history and political science classes we had debates, and I liked debating.”

She wasn’t always fond of studying though, and in fact had a hard time with her classes until fourth grade. “I had very good teachers who inspired me. If the teacher inspired me, I would do well in those classes. When I didn’t really like the teacher, I didn’t do so well.” She was toying with the idea of taking up medicine or engineering for college, and is actually open to taking up medicine even at this point in her life.

2. A big factor of being an achiever is her growing up in a very conservative family, where she rarely heard praise for achievements. “Sometimes you feel you’re never good enough.”

She agrees with this kind or upbringing, saying that her parents raised her and her three siblings (she is the eldest) to be very humble. “At the end of the day, I think that if you’re really good, somebody else should be the one to say that you are, and not you yourself,” she shares. As a family, she says they are just very conservative, not involved in politics or social events, but instead focused on business. She may have rarely heard compliments from her parents growing up, but she delightfully shares, “We will hear it from somebody else that our parents pala said these praises about us.”

3. On bribery: “In all my time in government, no one has even offered to give me five centavos.”

Commissioner Kim even chuckles while saying that no one has tried to bribe her, considering the common perception that the BIR is one of the most corrupt offices in the government. She explains it the way her husband an Ateneo law graduate, Daniel “Danby” Henares does: “Syempre they will first weigh if there is a possibility that you will accept (a bribe) or not, and if they know you won’t accept it, they won’t even try.” What if someone tries to bribe her? “I’ll file a complaint against him or her,” she states simply. So far there have been no death threats or threats of any kind, and she doesn’t seem surprised because she says that she’s just doing her job. “There’s nothing personal, I’m just making sure the country collects the right taxes so it can spend for its needs.”

She was the deputy commissioner for Commissioner Parayno in 2003, but she resigned four months after he resigned along with the Hyatt 10, when she didn’t see eye to eye with his replacement, Commissioner Bunyag. In 2009, she was helping Senator Noynoy Aquino with his presidential campaign, and upon his election, when he asked her to come on board, she said yes. “What made me agree to work with the President and Sec. Purisima is that we all have a very clear sense of what is right and what is wrong. And we all have a very clear sense of why we are into public service.” She says that it was not hard to say yes to the position, and in fact it would be harder to say no.

4. Comm. Kim in numbers:

100-plus: Number of forms she signs a day.

3: Number of dogs she has. Muncher the Chow-Chow, Cooper the Teacup Pomeranian, and Beamer the Golden Retriever and azkal mix.

6: Number of cars, three of which are convertibles. “My husband’s rule is all cars should be drivable. We use all six — well, he uses all six, not me”

2-plus: Number of years she worked with the World Bank as a senior private sector development specialist, during which she was already helping the BIR on a reform project concerning our $US11 million loan.

11,000: Number of pesos take-home pay per week. She doesn’t need an accountant since she’s a compensation income earner, but she is the accountant of her husband.

5. On how we should deal with corrupt government officials: “I cannot understand why 90-plus million people cannot control 1.3 million people.”

“You know there are only 1.3 million public and civic officers? We are 97 million Filipinos. That’s still 90-plus million left,” she explains. She believes that one official who might want to do something corrupt should not be able to stand a chance against millions of citizens.

When I ask her thoughts on the mentality of some people being reluctant to pay the correct taxes since it might just go straight to the pockets of corrupt officials anyway, she says: “As a citizen, we have two obligations. One, to pay the right taxes. Two, to make sure those taxes go to the right place.” She explains that it is our obligation to make sure that whoever we place in office performs their duties and spends our money correctly. And despite cases of corruption, we must still pay taxes because two wrongs to do not make a right. She also emphasizes the importance of one vote: “You should make your vote count by voting the right person into office.” She strongly believes that the power of the country really rests in all of us.

6. She believes the first-ever impeachment of a Chief Justice is important because “there is a need for the judiciary to reform.”

She says that all three sectors of government should “walk in step.” She shares that they are undertaking reforms in the Executive; that with the presence of younger officials with newer ideas in the Legislative, there is also reform; and that the Judiciary must also reform to complete the whole “reform picture.” “You cannot do reform with just two branches,” she notes. When she went into law, she already knew that she did not want to be a litigation lawyer. She believes in structuring and advising to prevent further mistakes, and that she’d “rather be preventive, than curative.” Her frustration? “Sometimes, it’s not a battle of legal rights. It’s a matter of who you know and how much you can pay, and you keep postponing and postponing. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

7. Her husband Daniel Henares was her first and last boyfriend, and they were good friends for 20 years before they got married.

“All of these things are sometimes destiny,” Commissioner Kim says with a smile. She is introverted, he is extremely extroverted. She shies away from social gatherings, he loves them. But they became the best of friends after they met. They were in the same graduation rites at DLSU but they never met there, and instead, met in Ateneo. How did it cross over from friends to lovers? “My husband is so friendly, you cannot presume that he’s interested! He’s so playboy like all Henareses!” she exclaims laughing. He tells her that he was interested in her the day he met her, but to this day, she shyly dismisses it as pambobola. They lived together for a while, and she says that when he was at the lowest point of his life, she was there for him. “Eventually we realized that we’re for each other,” she says of their wedding in 2001. (Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is actually their wedding godmother.)

Weekends are her time to unwind with her businessman husband, and they like driving out of town to places like Tagaytay. “My husband always wants to accompany me when I have out–of-country conferences, that’s also our bonding time,” she happily shares. They do not have children but they also have no regrets. She believes that what she is doing is also very relevant, making a better future not just for one person, but hopefully for an entire country.

8. Commissioner Kim enjoys activities people think are only for boys: target shooting, and plumbing and carpentry work at home.

She was appointed BIR Commissioner in July 2010 and was given security detail. In February 2011, she took up target shooting. “When I was assigned, the President told me, ‘O, don’t make their life more difficult than it is already,’” she shares. She says she wanted to take up firing because her guards have guns, and in case something happens, she wants to know how to shoot a gun so that she’s not a liability.” She shares that she has all calibers of guns — 9, 40, 45 and even long guns, which are all kept at home in a locked cabinet. Who has the key? “Only me,” she smiles.

One of her law professors once told her that Leos have the tendency to be very technical and mechanical and she agrees. Commissioner Kim enjoys doing handy work at home, and even says “Why should I call a plumber when it’s so easy to do it myself?” The most difficult do-it-yourself job she did that she is most proud of was a cabinet she made from scratch. “This is not the type you assemble, walang guide, I measured, sawed the plywood, painted it, put it up,” she shares.

9. Commissioner Kim’s top tips on handling your money:

1) Have a proper recording of what you earn and what you spend.

2) Make sure to pay taxes diligently. Pay your legal obligations outright so that whatever is left is for you to spend on anything you want.

3) Invest in something that you know about, not in something someone you know just said. Be suspicious of investments that promise too good a return.

10. Though the length of her term will be decided by the President, whether P-Noy or the next, her wish is to not stay for the whole six years.

“My immediate plan is to finish the reform that needs to be done by 2013, so that we’ll know whether it’s working even with me not here,” she explains. She wants to turn it over to somebody else so that there are still a few years to make the necessary adjustments. She plans to create electronic, interactive forms for the BIR this year. Her goal is to make everyone realize how important it is to pay the correct taxes. She wants to strengthen the system in the bureau “so that it is not personality-led, instead it is institution-led reform.”

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During the course of the interview, she mentioned many times how things happen in our life “when they are meant to.” It was always her dream to study abroad but she followed her parents’ wishes to study college and law here in the Philippines. But sure enough, she was able to take her master’s abroad. She shared that time and circumstance made her and husband Daniel realize that they were meant to be together. And now, after being exposed to her family business and the books while growing up, after having taken up Accountancy and Law, after having worked at the BIR and the World Bank, she says, “Everything that happened in my life really prepared me to take on the BIR position.” She shares that all those experiences seem like parts of a jigsaw puzzle, unknowingly preparing her for what life has had in store for her. “If something is really for you, you just have to be patient. It will come.”

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E-mail me at askiamsuperbianca@yahoo.com or follow me on twitter @iamsuperbianca. master’s