You better watch out...for SanTax Claus

MANILA, Philippines - You better watch out, and you better not cry, because SanTax Claus is certainly coming to town.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) announced yesterday that it has deployed tax agents wearing Santa Claus costume in bazaars, exhibits, and other trade events under its “SanTax Claus Project.”

BIR officer-in-charge Joel Tan-Torres has issued Revenue Memorandum Order 34-2009 laying down the guidelines and procedures for the project.

He said revenue officers wearing “SanTax Claus” outfits would be deployed to bazaars and trade events to conduct monitoring during the Christmas shopping season to check on the compliance of bazaar operators, event organizers, commercial establishments, vendors, and privilege stores with the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).

According to him, the project would help improve tax awareness by encouraging the general public to habitually demand invoices for goods purchased and official receipts for services procured.

The BIR OIC added that voluntary compliance of bazaar operators, vendors and event organizers would result in higher tax collections.

He added that the project would also help expand the agency’s databank through the inclusion of non-registered taxpayers.

The tax agency has tasked revenue district officers (RDOs) to identify the bazaars, events and exhibits in their jurisdictions and at the same time conduct tax mapping operations or taxpayer compliance verification drive (TCVD).

The RDOs would also verify whether the event organizers are registered with the BIR.

Tan-Torres said the Santa tax agents would visit bazaars, tiangges or flea markets, and events to distribute flyers to participating vendors to remind them about the provisions of the tax code that include the issuance of official receipts, among others.

The tax agents would focus on violations such as the non-issuance of official receipts, non-registration with the BIR, and failure to secure official receipts and invoices from the tax agency.

The “SanTax Claus” teams would allow non-registered taxpayers to register with the agency and pay the P500 annual registration fee. They would also issue the required official receipts and invoices.

The BIR would coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to get a list of upcoming bazaars, exhibits, and events for the Christmas season.

The BIR is hard pressed for revenues due to its huge collection shortfall that led to the resignation of BIR commissioner Sixto Esquivias IV late last month.

The agency is tasked to collect P798.5 billion this year but has so far collected only P557 billion from January to September, or P39.2 billion short of the programmed collection of P596.2 billion in the same period last year.

This resulted in a record deficit of P237.5 billion in the first nine months of the year, eclipsing the previous record of P210.7 billion incurred in 2002.

The government sees the deficit hitting a record P250 billion or 3.2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year, from P68.1 billion or 0.9 percent last year due to the impact of the global economic meltdown.