Magsaysay wants BIR probed for AUV tax ruling

A resolution has been filed in the Senate seeking an investigation, in aid of legislation, on the recent issuance by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) of a revenue regulation that would effectively raise the taxes on Asian utility vehicles (AUVs).

Sen. Ramon B. Magsaysay Jr. filed Senate resolution No. 538 last Friday urging the Senate committee on ways and Means and other appropriate committees to conduct an inquiry, "on the exercise of function of the BIR in reclassifying various tax subjects as part of the implementation of the Tax Reform Code of 1997."

Magsaysay, while acknowledging that the Tax Reform Code of 1997 vested some authority to the Department of Finance and the BIR to reclassify subjects of taxation, said that "Congress is already in the process of passing new legislation to address AUV taxation."

"The BIR may have exercised an overbreath interpretation of its function when it issued the revenue regulation and may have preempted the Philippine legislature in its tax-making function," he said.

Magsaysay wants the BIR to submit an omnibus report on the reclassification of various taxable items it has issued after the enactment of the Tax Reform Code to check of possible fiscal leakages. – Marianne Go