by magnolia_eic | Sep 15, 2011 | Headlines, National News
GOVERNMENT efforts to run after tax evaders and smugglers are “paying off” after President Benigno S. Aquino III said that revenue collection for the first six months of this year has increased dramatically.
In his speech keynoting the 1st Integrity Summit held at the Grand Ballroom of the Marriot Hotel in Pasay City Wednesday, President Aquino revealed that the government’s campaign against tax evaders and smugglers had helped in putting in much needed revenues into government coffers by as much as 13.47 percent.
“Since we assumed office, we have worked on improving our tax administration efforts and some of the things we have done is run after tax evaders, smugglers and corrupt government officials,” the President told the gathering of local and global corporate leaders, anti-corruption experts, and senior government officials.
He noted that since July 2010 a total of 61 tax evasion cases and 43 smuggling cases have been filed against these groups and individuals “with claims totaling around P26-billion and 54-billion, respectively.”
“As we continue to monitor these cases, I am happy to report that our campaign against tax evaders and smugglers is paying off,” the President said.
“From January to July this year, revenues collected have already increased by 13.47 percent year on year,” he added.
He said that these “taxes that could have gone to social services, infrastruchture, debt reduction or national defense” had the previous administration been more alert to the situation. (PCOO)
by magnolia_eic | Jul 29, 2011 | Announcements, Business, Headlines, National News
OWNERS of commercial establishments will now be required to ensure that their tenants are registered taxpayers, according to the latest issuance of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). The BIR has begun its drive to track the untaxed sector with Revenue Regulations No. 12-2011, issued on July 25.
The latest tax regulation sets the reportorial requirements for establishments leasing commercial spaces. “It shall be the primary responsibility of all owners or sub-lessors of commercial establishments/ buildings/spaces to ensure that the person intending to lease their commercial space is a BIR- registered taxpayer,” the issuance stated. Their tenants must have a tax identification number (TIN), a BIR Certificate of Registration and duly registered receipts, it added.
These requirements ensure that those engaged in retail remit value-added taxes and income taxes to the government. Under the new issuance, building owners will now be required to submit, under oath, a tax registration profile of their lessees to the BIR twice a year.(BIR)
by magnolia_eic | Jul 27, 2011 | Headlines, National News
MALACANANG urged the people to support the intensified drive of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to generate more government funds that will be used for developmental projects and eventually bring real progress and development to the country.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, Jr. encouraged the Filipino citizenry, especially those in the professional sector, to declare their actual annual income and pay their taxes properly as enunciated by President Benigno S. Aquino III in his State of the Nation Address during the Joint Session of the 15th Congress at the Batasan Pambansa Complex in Quezon City on Monday.
The Executive Secretary stressed the importance of the people’s trust in government as he assured that the funds collected by the government’s revenue collection agency will directly go into the national treasury. According to the BIR, 1.7 million self-employed and professional taxpayers comprised of lawyers, doctors and businessmen, among other, paid a total of 9.8 billion pesos in 2010.
The data indicates that each of them paid only an average of 5,783 pesos in income taxes – if proven true – each must have earned only 8,500 pesos per month, which is below the existing minimum wage in the country.
The President also spelled out the concrete projects of his administration using public funds collected by the BIR. According to the President, cheating in the payment of taxes not only affects the government funds collection but also the Filipino people who could have enjoyed from the benefits these taxes would have provided. (PCOO)
