Shame not convertible to cash

 The BIR has just pushed the envelope in its shame campaign against professionals who do not pay correct taxes to government. This time the BIR put out an ad claiming that more than half of doctors in Cebu and Davao do not pay the right taxes, if at all.

The ad follows an earlier one depicting a doctor riding on the shoulders of a public school teacher, the inference being that teachers, whose taxes are withheld at source, carry the heavier tax burden despite getting paid far less than higher earning professionals who do not report what they truly make.

Just as doctors slammed the first ad as being unfair and sweeping, they are likely to slam the BIR again over the followup. But then, aside from twisting in the wind, there is really not much the doctors can do under the circumstances.

The BIR is confronting the doctors with solid evidence. It has obviously the records that compare the number of doctors in a particular place and the amount of taxes these doctors paid, based on the documents they themselves filed.

To those doctors who filed the correct taxes, they really have no problem and can go on with their lives. To those who have a beef with the BIR ads, they only have two choices -- either sue the BIR and run the risk of getting exposed, or just pay up and shut up.

It is one thing to deny an accusation with words, another to reject it with evidence. And sadly for the doctors, the only evidence -- and which is really the best there is -- is an income tax return in your favor, meaning the entries therein reflect the truth, both in earning and in taxes paid.

Short of having that piece of evidence at hand, there is really nothing much any doctor can do except to either perorate uselessly or to simply grin and bear it. Despite the great controversy stirred by the BIR ad, the only way to steer clear of it is simple enough. And doctors need not be told what it is.

On the other hand, it is not as if the BIR will emerge a clear winner in this face-off. True, its shame ads may bring to the open certain anomalies in the way the tax burden is shared by this country's citizens. But publicizing an anomaly does not necessarily bring the money to the till.

In other words, it can take out newspaper advertisements meant to shame doctors and other professionals all it wants, but unless it can compel these targets to pay up, then nothing will come of the effort. More so when it is taxing everyone and everything and can easily get distracted by other deliverers of mischief.

Indeed, given the aggressiveness with which the BIR has embarked on its shame campaign, one is driven to wonder why it is not realistically pursuing tax miscreants with the same fervor but with less the inherent uncertainty of a mere ad campaign.

Taking out media advertisements is expensive. In fact, it is way too costly for the intended gain, which is simply to shame. For the kind of money the BIR is spending to shame anybody, it ought to be particularly concerned with the rate of return on its investment.

The BIR has to devise ways and means by which it can collect the right taxes every time from everyone. If it is able to do this, it will be able to raise its collections to such substantial heights that it may even be prompted to lower taxes for the benefit of everybody. This mere shaming is never meant to work.

Shame cannot be converted into money. In the first place, not paying the correct taxes already involves some amount of shame at the personal level. But such shame can be put away at some level depending on the strength or weakness of a person's integrity and character.

In a strange kind of way, paying taxes can provide an excellent measure of a people's strength and character as a nation. I would not be surprised if there is somehow a correlation between our being one of the most corrupt countries in the world and the ability of our people to cheat on their taxes on a massive scale.