BIR turns focus on estate tax

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), scouting for ways to improve tax collections, is looking at boosting the revenues generated from estate tax, its top official said Tuesday night.

BIR commissioner Joel Tan-Torres said the agency is launching its “Rest in Peace” program which would pave the way for stricter monitoring of the transfer of properties of the deceased to their heirs.

“Essentially, we will be on top of everything when an RIP case arises. We would tap the records of the memorial park and the local government units. We would monitor the death certificates,” Tan said.

Tan said it was necessary to verify the records of the deceased to determine whether the heirs filed the appropriate estate tax returns.

He said that some individuals have been skirting around the law for several years now requiring the payment of estate tax on the transfer of the properties of the dead or the so-called “mana” to their heirs.

The maximum amount of estate tax slapped by the BIR is 20 percent of the value of the property.

To skirt around this rule, Tan said the usual practice is to transfer the properties to the names of the heirs even before the death of the owner of the properties so that the tax to be paid is just the donor’s tax which is lower or about 15 percent of the value of the property.

He said the BIR may come out with a revenue regulation implementing the program early next year.

Early this month, Tan-Torres has assumed the functions of the BIR commissioner pending President Arroyo’s appointment  of a replacement for Sixto Esquivias IV.

Esquivias resigned last month amid intense stress over the large shortfall in tax collection.

Tan-Torres has laid out several important measures to improve tax collection including tighter monitoring on the income of retailers in bazaars this Christmas season and a tax on campaign expenditures.

The BIR earlier announced it would soon collect a five percent withholding tax on all political contributions and campaign expenditures of candidates running in the 2010 polls.