DMCI named to BIR’s Billionaires’ Club

MANILA, Philippines - DMCI Homes was among 10 companies that received the 2013 Billionaires’ Club Award from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for paying more than P1 billion in taxes last year.

DMCI Homes president Alfredo R. Austria and senior vice president for finance and operations Ramil Lombos received the award from Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima, BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares and BIR assistant commissioner Alfredo V. Misajon during the launching ceremony of the BIR’s 2014 tax campaign for large taxpayers at the Solaire Resort in Parañaque City on Feb. 25, 2014.

In the event that also fetes the 2,120 companies in the BIR’s list of large taxpayers in the country, including DMCI Homes, Purisima and Henares thanked the top executives of the big corporations for helping the BIR in its tax collection effort.

DMCI Homes and other companies paid P755.23 billion in taxes last year through the BIR’s Large Taxpayer Service (LTS) department. The figure, which is 15.98 percent higher than the LTS’s tax collection in 2012, represents more than 60 percent of the BIR’s total 2013 tax collection target of P1.217 trillion.

Austria said DMCI Homes is glad to receive the BIR award and become part of the agency’s Billionaires’ Club.

“We’re also quite surprised that DMCI Homes, being a relatively younger company compared to the other real estate companies, was chosen as part of the Billionaires’ Club,” Austria said.

Lombos said DMCI Homes is a responsible developer and pays the right taxes.

“It is one of our ways of helping the government,” he said.

The premiere developer of innovative resort-themed residential condominium communities was the only real estate company among the awardees. Lombos said it was only last year that DMCI Homes’ tax payment reached P1 billion and the company was classified by the BIR as a large taxpayer.

During the BIR event, Purisima urged large taxpayers to continue supporting the LTS as this year’s tax collection target of the BIR is bigger at P1.456 trillion. Henares said it is the consistency of the tax payment to the LTS that basically allows the BIR to make sure that the government has that amount of money to spend for the basic services.

Austria said DMCI Homes fully supports the BIR’s 2014 tax collection campaign dubbed “I Love the Philippines, I Pay My Taxes Right, It’s as Easy As RFP (Register File Pay).”

“It is our hope that all companies in the Philippines pay the right taxes, especially those in the real estate and construction sector, so that we can all contribute to the progress of the country,” Austria said. “We also hope that these taxes be put to good use.”