MANILA — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said that contrary to a report that came out in one of the leading newspapers in the country, it has remitted its withholding taxes and the social contributions of its employees on time, as mandated by governing laws.
The alleged PHP80.914 million unremitted amount includes withholding taxes and deductions for the month of December 2017, which were to be remitted January 2018, the bureau’s management explained in a statement Tuesday.
The BIR said the amount in question includes withholding taxes due to the bureau itself amounting to PHP44.923 million was remitted promptly before the Jan. 15, 2018 deadline set under the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1997, as amended. A total of PHP4.022 million was refunded to the employees, it said.
According to the bureau, the amounts of PHP20.629 million, PHP1.446 million, and PHP2.581 million were likewise promptly remitted before the statutory deadline of Jan. 10, 2018 to the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth), and Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-IBIG), respectively.
The remaining balances of PHP6.955 million due to BIR, PHP2.695 million due to GSIS, PHP450,602.46 due to PhilHealth, and PHP0.190 million due to Pag-IBIG, are for reconciliation, it said.
The bureau said these account balances do not represent any unremitted amount by the BIR. It said they pertain to the carry-over balances during the e-NGAS implementation from the manual system starting in 2004, amounts to be refunded to BIR employees, and accounts for adjustment.
The Commission on Audit (COA) Annual Audit Report, which was the basis of the misleading article, discloses the figures, the BIR said, adding that there is nothing in the report that says the tax agency failed to timely remit any withholding tax and deduction.
The bureau said the report simply recommended and that the BIR agreed to require the Disbursement Accounting Division (DAD) to conduct an in-depth reconciliation/analysis of the inter-agency payable accounts; remit the balances, if any; and revert those without claimants.
It likewise recommended to require the personnel in-charge of the Payrolls in the HRD and DAD to conduct a regular reconciliation of employees’ payroll so that what is deducted from the employees’ salaries should be the same amount to be remitted on or before their due dates, said the bureau. (BIR PR/PNA)
