BIR sees collection hike from medium taxpayers

CEBU, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue-13 expects to increase the contribution of medium taxpayers to its revenue collection this year through 2018.

In an interview on Tuesday, BIR-13 regional director Aynie Dizon said the agency expects medium taxpayers to contribute about 32-33% of its total tax collections this year.

"For next year, we expect a 35-40 percent contribution from the same group," the official said in an interview at the sidelines of BIR-13's Medium Taxpayers Segmentation forum, which gathered the agency's identified top 500 medium taxpayers in SM City Cebu.

Dizon said medium taxpayers are the agency's top tax contributor despite the fact that they only comprised about .04% of the total business registrants of the revenue agency.

Last year, medium taxpayers accounted for 24 percent or P6.4 billion of BIR-13's P26.6 billion collection for the year.

She cited the top 1 medium taxpayer, engaged in wholesale business, of the revenue region paid P981 million in taxes last year.

Dizon said the expected growth in medium taxpayers' contribution to revenue collection could be attributed to the increase in business sales and transactions, and improved monitoring of their compliance.

Meanwhile the Taxpayers Segmentation Forum was aimed to orient its medium taxpayers and discuss issues and concerns to maximize their tax compliance.

The said top 500 taxpayers comprise the Medium Taxpayers Segment (MTS) of the region.

They are technically large taxpayers without the requisite notification from the revenue commissioner to be enlisted and classified as such large taxpayer.

The creation of the MTS in the region is largely intended to strengthen and expand the coverage of the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS) of the BIR.

During its initial implementation, the project will cover the top 500 non-individual taxpayers.

Dizon said that in the next five years, BIR-13 is looking to increase the number to 1,500 to eventually increase the tax contribution of the group to more than 50 percent.

From January to September this year, BIR-13 collected P20.3 billion, up 13 percent from its P18-billion collection in same period last year but fell short 6.9 percent versus its P21.8-billion collection goal for the period.

In the third quarter alone, BIR 13 collected P6.7 billion, down 3 percent from its P6.92-billion collection in the same period last year.

BIR 13 implemented a seven-point program to help boost its collection this year.

One of the programs is massive tax compliance verification drive (door-to-door spot checking) which aims to identify establishments that are not yet registered with the BIR. Others include the intensified tax data matching; benchmarking for industries; point-of-sale (POS) post evaluation; inventory stock taking; enforcement activities; and surveillance activities.

BIR-13 collects taxes in Cebu and Bohol through five revenue district offices.

The BIR had outlined priority programs aimed at serving the bureau’s three key objectives: attain collection targets, improve taxpayer satisfaction as well as to protect revenues and “recapture” public trust. (BANAT NEWS)