Blitz

One might disagree with Vladimir Putin’s goal, but we will have to hand it to the man for, at the very least, a surfeit of chutzpah.

When the Ukrainian crisis broke out, it seems only Putin had an idea about what to do. He gave the fleeing pro-Russian Ukrainian leader sanctuary in Moscow, but otherwise left him to rot in his own political purgatory. The man, Putin himself observed, no longer had a political future.

In a matter of days, well-armed troops (whose insignias were carefully peeled off) flooded the Crimean peninsula. They surrounded Ukrainian military bases and demanded they surrender. Although Moscow does not claim them, the troops are obviously Russian — with clear orders to secure the contested peninsula.

Last Thursday, the parliament of Crimea (an autonomous region under Ukrainian sovereignty) voted to hold a referendum on Crimea’s future on March 16. The outcome of that referendum is known even now. Crimea has a majority ethnic Russian population that is not shy about supporting Russian annexation.

A few years before, two regions of Georgia with predominantly Russian populations were forcibly transformed into independent states under Moscow’s protection. The Georgian government objected to the secession but could do nothing in the face of overwhelming Russian military power.

The West, after strongly worded communiqués condemning the Russian land grab, very quickly forgot about the matter. There was so much at stake returning to the status quo ante with Moscow. Little Georgia’s frantic appeal for western support against the annexation was, well, a mere diplomatic nuisance.

With Putin, this part of the world has effectively returned to the norms of 19th century international politics. The country with the power gets the land. Putin dreams of reconsolidating the old compass of the Russian empire. Those territories with predominantly Russian populations will revert to the motherland. Those on the frontier of Russia’s boundaries will be reduced to client states.

The was the old Tsarist impulse resurrected in the guise of the Soviet Union. Putin, the Russian nationalist, resurrects that impulse — with dramatic decisiveness and the willingness to use force if necessary.

In the end, the western powers will make the appropriate noises and then reconcile with the compelling geopolitics of Russia. A military confrontation over land populated by Russians is, from the view of western capitals, simply not worth it.

Taxes

The BIR provoked a furor when it put out an ad showing a doctor perched on the shoulders of a teacher. The point of the ad was to underscore the injustice in some professions paying a large share of their incomes in taxes and other professions getting away with paying less.

Public school teachers get a third of their pay withheld from the source. Medical professionals may so easily under-declare their earnings and pay a smaller proportion of their earnings in taxes. The world is not fair. The tax system abets that. If more of the taxes were shifted to the consumption side and removed from the income side, the system will be a lot fairer.

The uproar, however, centers on the perceived wholesale vilification of one sector. The medical professionals are justly outraged. Significantly, the teachers have joined in denouncing the revenue agency for its callous campaign.

It might be better if the agency targets the large taxpayers before mounting its shame campaign against middle class professionals. If the large taxpayers are made to pay correctly, the smaller taxpayers (doctors included) might be better disposed to pay more.

After years of badgering by the BIR, for instance, the revenue agency managed to convince the PCSO to pay up on its tax deficiencies. This year, the PCSO remitted more than P12.26 billion to the BIR. Of this amount, P10.56 billion represents income generated from documentary stamp sales from 2011 to 2013. P1.7 billion represents tax deficiencies inherited from past management. Those deficiencies accumulated from 2007 to 2010.

PCSO chair Margie Juico announced that the full payment this year of taxes due is in keeping with the policy adopted by the agency’s present board. That policy calls for prompt and full payment of taxes due.

The huge single tax payment made by the PCSO overshadows whatever may be collected from the small earnings by our professionals. That large tax payment did not hamper the agency’s social missions and the significant volume of assistance it channels to the typhoon-ravaged areas.

Then there is the case of a luxury car company, said to have evaded billion in taxes due. On this particular case, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares appears reluctant to lift a finger and collect the volume of taxes due her agency.

As early as January last year, the investigation division of the BIR sent Henares a memo detailing the systematic under-valuation of vehicles sold.

The memo, since made public by disappointed BIR insiders, was signed by officials from the BIR National Investigation Division and endorsed by Deputy Commissioner for the Legal and Inspection Group, Estela Sales. It called for an exhaustive investigation of all the accounting records of the company under the BIR’s Run After Tax Evaders Program.

Henares, for over a year now, resisted signing the memo that would activate the tax investigation. She has never explained her reasons for refusing to do so —  even as she so cavalierly impugns the entire medical profession, caricaturing doctors as tax evaders.