BIR task force probing illegal foreign hires

MANILA, Philippines — Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has created a task force to investigate 19 service providers of online gaming firms who were found to have unregistered foreign employees.

Its initial findings showed that 19 service providers of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) had discrepancies in terms of the number of foreign workers they reported.

“They paid for so many employees, but when we got all the lists from the other departments – the DOLE, Pagcor and BI – they have more foreign workers than those they have reported,” Dulay said yesterday, referring to the Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Bureau of Immigration, respectively.

He added this translates to about P1 billion in uncollected withholding taxes from the service providers for their unregistered alien employees.

Dulay said the BIR has given the firms notices to rectify discrepancies and to remind them to pay the taxes due. Otherwise, they will be subjected to an audit.

“We will investigate. If they answer, yes, we had a mistake and we will pay, end of story. You tell them, next time you must pay correctly. Now, if they fight it, that’s another story. We’ll tell them to open their books,” the BIR chief said.

Earlier, BIR deputy commissioner Arnel Guballa said the BIR would audit the taxes that were withheld and remitted by POGOs for their foreign workers to check if they are correct.

This is in line with the government’s effort to intensify the monitoring of foreign workers to ensure that they are paying the correct taxes.

Estimates from the Department of Finance showed that the government still stands to collect P32 billion in income taxes annually from some 138,000 foreign workers, particularly in the POGO industry.

To strengthen its efforts, the government has formed an interagency task force which has secured the list of foreign nationals employed by companies in the Philippines.

The BIR said this list was reconciled with the alphabetical list submitted by these entities and their withholding tax remittances to the BIR.

Guballa said the POGOs found to be unregistered with the BIR would be penalized.

Plug loopholes

Meanwhile, Sulong Dignidad party-list nominee Rico Paolo Quicho said the interagency agreement that laid out strict guidelines for the government’s issuance of work and employment permits for foreign workers should be able to plug the loopholes in the country’s labor laws on the hiring of foreign nationals.

“Sulong Dignidad has remained consistent in pushing for clear-cut measures that will prevent illegal foreign workers from shamelessly robbing Filipinos of jobs in our own country,” Quicho said. 

The group lauded the BI, DOLE and the Department of Justice (DOJ), along with the BIR, for forging a pact following reports over the rising number of Chinese workers in the country, he added.

Labor officials earlier admitted that a large number of tourists, most of them Chinese, were able to skirt Philippine labor regulations by entering the country using tourist visas before getting short-term permits to work mostly for online gaming firms.

“We laud the Bureau of Immigration for acting promptly and implementing measures to protect the dignity of Filipino workers and making sure that our regulations will not be prone to abuse,” said Quicho, who heads Sulong Dignidad.

Under the new guidelines, the BI will only issue special work permits (SWP) to foreigners who intend to work in the country outside of an employment arrangement in 14 permissible areas of work. 

On the other hand, an alien intending to work pursuant to an employment arrangement is required to obtain an Alien Employment Permit (AEP) from DOLE. However, the AEP will only be issued if no Filipino is available to perform the work which the foreign applicant seeks to discharge. 

Pending issuance of such AEP, the alien may work in the country only if he or she has secured an SWP, which has a maximum effectivity of only six months, from the BI.

Work and employment permit applicants are now also required to obtain Tax Identification Number from the BIR. – With Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero