BIR take declines in first 8 months

Collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) declined by 1.82 percent to P253.51 billion in the first eight months of the year from P258.23 billion in the same period last year.

The latest figure was also 15 percent below the programmed collection of P298.09 billion for the eight-month period.

For August alone, collections rose by 19.67 percent to P34.176 billion from P28.557 billion a year ago, but was still 8.55 percent lower than the P37.373-billion target.

"Our initial expectations was that August would record poor results. But it actually breached the P34-billion level," Internal Revenue Commissioner Guillermo Parayno Jr. said yesterday.

However, Parayno refused to answer questions whether the bureau would be able to hit its yearend target.

The BIR chief expects to collect between P14.5 billion and P14.8 billion in additional revenues after releasing demand letters to delinquent taxpayers.

As of presstime, the BIR had already released 600 demand letters which could result in collections of up to P10 billion when the recipient of the demand letters BIR take … From B-1

face the BIR for proper payment.

The 600 delinquent taxpayers are suppliers of services for 250 large taxpayers.

Parayno said the erring taxpayers were "discovered" trough the bureau’s new system that identifies through third party sources misdeclaration or underdeclaration of tax returns.

Another 10,000 demand letters will be released within the month, from which the BIR expects to generate additional collections of P4.5 to P4.8 billion.

Parayno said that some of the collections from the new system will be realized next year.

"What we want to achieve immediately is for taxpayers to make the proper disclosures, and then make the proper payments," Parayno said.