Public reminded: Pay right taxes

MANILA, Philippines - The government is calling on the public to pay the right taxes as the April 15 deadline for the filing of income tax returns (ITRs) nears.

“Taxes belong to the public, and the public must demand transparency and accountability from all levels of government in the use of public funds. The government likewise must ask citizens to meet their tax obligations honestly and responsibly,” a statement posted on the government’s website www.gov.ph read.

Resources and links were compiled on the website aside from bir.gov.ph, the official website of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) where announcements, information and tax rules are posted to help taxpayers.

The government also launched an interactive website, knowyourtaxes.ph, to assist and encourage the public to pay taxes.

The BIR has issued a regulation prescribing the new forms to be used for the filing of ITRs.

The BIR forms are as follows: 1700 for individuals earning purely compensation income; 1701 for self-employed, estates and trusts; 1702 for non-individual taxpayers; and 1702-MX for taxpayers with mixed income subject to multiple income tax rates or with income subject to special rate.

Taxpayers have the option to file their ITRs manually using pre-printed forms at the BIR website. These interactive forms will automatically compute the taxes due as well as validate information provided by the taxpayers.

Once validated, the ITR forms can be printed and filed with an authorized agent bank or revenue collection officer, the BIR said.

The bureau is tasked to collect P1.47 trillion this year, 16.8 percent higher than the P1.25 trillion collected in 2013.

April has been declared Tax Awareness Month by virtue of Proclamation No. 812, series of 2005.

“Taxes make up a large part of the national budget. For 2014, tax revenues (as opposed to non-tax revenues such as penalties and tolls) account for 83 percent of the national budget. This amounts to P1,879,918,000,000 of the P2.265-trillion General Appropriations Act,” the statement said.

Taxes fund key programs and services provided by the government like the salaries of public servants such as teachers and police officers. Public education, roads and healthcare are also funded by taxes.

Earlier, Malacañang defended the BIR’s efforts to improve tax collection, saying the taxation to gross domestic product ratio at this time was lamentably lower than in the mid-1990s.

Compared to other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the Philippines’ taxation to GDP ratio was only at 14 percent.

Coloma said the GDP was obviously much bigger now and higher tax collection must be pursued to accelerate the country’s progress.

The government estimates that some P400 billion is lost each year to tax evasion.

The BIR had earlier waged a shame campaign in a bid to collect the proper taxes from professionals and other self-employed. – Aurea Calica, Zinnia dela Peña