BIR collection up 8% to P128 B in August

MANILA, Philippines – Tax collections of the Bureau of Inter- nal Revenue rose eight percent in August from a year ago but were still short of the government’s target.

According to the BIR, tax collections amounted to P127.56 billion last month, up P9.45 billion from a year ago.

The latest figure, however, was 10.48 percent lower than the agency’s target of P142.5 billion for the month.

BIR commissioner Kim Henares said the agency could have collected more if not for lower earnings by the large taxpayers group whose operations were affected by the port congestion.

“The performance of the Bureau of Internal Revenue was affected by the low income tax payments received for the second quarter of taxable year 2014 which can be attributed to lower corpo- rate income of large corporations, which could also be brought about by the port congestion experienced during the past months,” Henares said.

The BIR’s Large Taxpayers Service, which cover payments made by corpora- tions, contributed P82.93 billion to last month’s collections. The amount was 6.26 percent more than the previous year’s collections.

The BIR aims to collect P1.46 trillion this year or 16 percent higher than the 2013 figure.

The BIR is aggressively looking into tax payments across all industries to check whether the right taxes are paid as part of efforts to boost collections and hit its revenue goal.