CALASIAO, Pangasinan — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) 1 (Ilocos) is positive it would attain its PHP16.6-billion target collection for 2018.
BIR-1 Director Clavelina Nacar, in an interview Monday afternoon, said they are focused on monitoring tax payment compliance by businesses in the region to boost the collection of the revenue office.
“We are implementing the third-party information lists gathering, wherein we get lists from other government agencies issuing permits to compare it with our database,” she said.
BIR-1 has asked the mayor’s offices for the lists of issued business permits in their jurisdiction and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the lists of quarry operators in the region, she added.
Nacar further said that the revenue district offices continue to conduct Taxpayer’s Compliance Verification Drive, with them checking business establishments’ registration, invoicing and bookkeeping requirements.
She also urged the business owners, self-employed individuals, and professionals to pay the PHP500 Annual Registration Fee (ARF).
Nacar said unpaid ARF collectibles with penalties for the past five years in the region already amounted to PHP81 million or PHP9,800 from each taxpayer who did not pay.
“It may seem a small amount but if combined together, it is also big,” she said.
Deadline for payment of ARF is Jan. 31 of each year.
Nacar admitted that their withholding tax collection has decreased by almost 60 percent with the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law this year.
“Under the new tax law, those who earn PHP250,000 and below annually are no longer subject to withholding tax on compensation. But if all taxpayers are paying their taxes correctly, we will be able to recover our losses in some areas,” she said.
BIR-1 was able to achieve its PHP14-billion target collection last year and almost all of its revenue districts, except for Laoag, also reached their own target.
“We are still negative in our collection in the first semester of 2018 but we are positive to achieve our target for this year since Region 1 has a lot of potential,” Nacar said. (Hilda Austria/PNA)
