Taxpayer base now 18.9M

MANILA, Philippines - The number of registered taxpayers has increased since the start of the Aquino administration, latest data from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) showed.

As of end-December 2011, there are now 18.9 million registered taxpayers, an increase of 1.7 million from the end-December 2010 registrants of 17.3 million, according to the BIR’s 2011 Annual Report released recently.

Of the total number of registered taxpayers in 2011, majority or 12 million are individual taxpayers comprising of compensation income earners and professionals. The number increased by 7.78 percent from the end-2010 level of 11.2 million.

Similarly, corporate taxpayers increased to 615,734 in 2011 from 598,059 in 2010, data from the BIR also showed.

Estate and trust taxpayers increased but continued to account for a small portion of the total number of registered taxpayers in the country.

The number of estate and trust taxpayers rose to 26,742 in 2011 from 25,029 in 2010, data from the BIR showed.

Other registered taxpayers including local government agencies, local government units and government-owned and controlled corporations as mandated by Executive Order 98 issued in 1999, also increased to 3.5 million as of end-2011 from only 3 million in 2010.

In its report, the BIR attributed the increase in the number of registered taxpayers to a host of initiatives undertaken since the start of the Aquino administration.

These include improved integrity and accuracy of taxpayer database, improved professionalism, integrity and satisfaction of human resources.

The agency is eyeing to increase the number of taxpayers to 20 million by the end of the Aquino administration’s term, data from the agency showed.

To do this, the agency would have to increase the number of taxpayers by roughly two million every year until 2016 by widening the tax base as much as possible.

At present, the BIR estimates that there are about 20 million tax evaders in the country. The agency has been stepping up efforts to curb tax evasion.

It has been filing before the Department of Justice (DOF) cases against tax evaders every other week.

Last year, the BIR collected P924 billion or 12.34 percent higher than revenues raised in 2010.

This year, the agency is tasked to collect P1.066 trillion, the first time that its collection target reached the P1-trillion mark.