BIR to step up tax collection, will go after tax cheats

In a bid to meet its target of Php860 billion, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) vowed today to intensify its tax collection by running after tax cheats. “We are strengthening our enforcement activities, and it is highlighted by filing tax evasion cases,” BIR Commissioner Kim Henares told reporters in a press briefing in Malacañang. “We started last Thursday and we intend to keep on filing every other week.” “I have confidence in my people and confidence in the attitude of the Filipino people, that they want to help their government; and that we will able to reach the Php860-billion goal,” she said. Henares clarified however that people who deliberately cheated on their tax payments may still make the necessary restitution by submitting amended income tax returns. “It is the time for everyone to pay their right taxes. If they had not paid their right taxes before, what they can do is amend their return and put the right amount and pay these taxes before we even file a case against them, because once we file a case, it will be a no-compromise situation. It will continue until the case is resolved,” Henares said. According to Henares, about 40 percent of the income earners belonged to the so-called “underground economy,” making it difficult for the BIR to go after them. “There is more than P4 million that we are collecting from the fixed earners, but for sole proprietors, for individuals doing business and professionals, there is only less than a million from 800,000 people,” Henares said. To encourage more income earners to pay their taxes, Henares hinted that the BIR would simplify and streamline the tax payment system. The BIR chief also said that the reforms are meant to ensure “that our people will realize the new way of doing business is to make sure that every single centavo collected goes to the national treasury.” She stressed that the BIR’s intensified tax collection campaign would cover all sectors, adding that no sector is 100-percent compliant. Henares urged the public to pay their correct taxes while they still have the chance to do so. Furthermore, she advised consumers to demand a receipt for every commodity or service rendered to them to aid the agency’s campaign against tax evaders.

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