The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has tapped local government units (LGUs) for its tax compliance campaign.
The BIR issued a memorandum which mandates that prior to the processing of any application or renewal of business permits and licenses to professionals issued by LGUs, the LGUs must first ask the applicants for BIR-prescribed documents.
The requirements for initial applications are the submission of a taxpayers’ identification number, a BIR-issued certificate of registration and proof of payment of the annual BIR registration fee of P500 for each establishment.
The same documents are also required for renewal applications plus annual income tax returns with proof of payment, monthly and quarterly value added tax (VAT) returns or monthly percentage returns for the year immediately preceding the year of renewal.
The initiative is a result of an inter-agency cooperation among the League of Provinces of the Philippines, the League of Cities of the Philippines, the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, and the Liga ng mga Barangay ng Pilipinas, the Department of Finance and the Department of the Interior and Local Government.
With this agreement, the BIR urged all business enterprises and professionals to comply with the requirements.
“The BIR and all LGUs encourage all business enterprises and professionals to faithfully observe these requirements, in order to expedite the processing of the concerned applications, and to foster the economic growth of the country’s towns and cities,” Internal Revenue Commissioner Lilian Hefti said.
The BIR is stepping up efforts to improve collections amid perennial revenue shortfalls.
Although the agency recorded a nine percent year-on-year growth in revenues to P647 billion from January to November last year from P594.1 billion recorded a year ago, it still has a long way to go to hit its collection goal of P765 billion for 2007.
Both the BIR and the BOC are hard-pressed to meet their respective collection targets to allow the government to contain the budget deficit at P63 billion last year and to balance this by the end of the year.