BIR establishes medium taxpayers service in Manila

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue  Regional Office in Manila recently launched its own Medium Taxpayers Service (MTS) in an effort to strengthen monitoring of the 500 biggest taxpayers in the city.

 BIR Revenue Region 6 director Arnel Guballa said the creation of the MTS would further improve the BIR’s collection, and beef up funds for the administration’s Build Build Build program.

According to Guballa, BIR Manila’s MTS will compose of the 500 largest taxpayers under its jurisdiction.

He said the enlisted medium taxpayers would play a vital role in BIR Manila’s collection drive as they contribute about 21 percent of the office’s annual collection.

 Josephine Virtucio, BIR Revenue Region 6 assistant director, said medium taxpayers  accounted for P9.09 billion or 21.77 percent of the region’s actual collections in 2016.

From January to September, the MTS has already contributed P5.64 billion or about 16.35 percent of the region’s year-to-date collection, Virtucio said.

 She said BIR Region 6 expects to collect P3.46 billion from the medium taxpayers in the last three months of the year, bringing total collections to P9.1 billion by the end of the year.

This corresponds to about 18.77 percent of the region’s collection goal of P48.48 billion for 2017.

Of the 500 medium taxpayers under the region, Virtucio said 486 are enrolled in the Electronic Filing and Payment System (eFPS). The remaining 14 that are yet enrolled in the system must do so now that they are part of the MTS, she said.

Last July, BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay signed Revenue Memorandum Order 17, creating and activating regional teams to improve the bureau’s collection from the top 500 taxpayers in their respective areas.  These taxpayers are classified as medium taxpayers.

BIR assistant commissioner Marietta Lorenzo earlier said the bureau was  targeting to enlist about 6,000 taxpayers during the initial phase of the implementation of the MTS. This segment is estimated to comprise about 19 percent of the BIR’s total tax collections annually.

The BIR also aims to establish regional teams which will analyze taxpayers’ compliance and recommend measures to be implemented by the concerned regional and district offices to improve their tax collections.