Top recruiters not top taxpayers

RECRUITMENT agencies were the latest target of the Finance department’s campaign against tax evasion, with popular placement firms said to have not placed among the industry’s top taxpayers last year.

The biggest agency in terms of job listings, in particular, was said to have paid no income taxes.

In a Tax Watch advertisement, the department compared the top taxpayers based on Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) data with a top 20 ranking based on the number of job listings on the WorkAbroad.ph web site.

"WorkAbroad.ph has listed down the top 20 recruitment agencies that require no placement fees based on these agencies’ job postings," the department said.

"The BIR [meanwhile] has compiled a preliminary report on Tax Compliance of Recruitment Agencies," it added.

"Are the agencies on WorkAbroad’s list also top taxpayers for 2012?"

It noted that out of the top 20 agencies according to job postings, none were in the BIR’s top 20 taxpayers list and vice versa.

"The #1 agency ... had P0.00 2012 income tax due," it also pointed out.

The ad declared that JCJ Management Services and International Promotion, the top firm in WorkAbroad’s list with 531 job postings, did not pay any income tax last year.

Universal Staffing Services, Inc., second with 482 jobs, paid P109,343 in taxes, while Land Base Human Resources Co., third with 366 postings, paid P41,093.82.

Rounding out the top five recruitment agencies were Industrial Personnel and Management Services, with 312 jobs and P529,161.19 in income taxes paid; and Staffhouse International Resources, with 261 postings and P586,647 in taxes.

The biggest taxpayer among those in the WorkAbroad list was EDI Staffbuilders International, Inc. with P3.25 million. It placed seventh in terms of job postings. The next biggest taxpayer, with P635,665 in payments, was East West Placement Center, Inc., which had the sixth highest number of listings.

The top 20 taxpayers in the industry, meanwhile, paid substantially higher.

The biggest was Topserve Manpower Solutions, Inc., which paid P15.36 million in income taxes in 2012.

Supply Oilfield and Marine Personnel Services, Inc. placed second with P10.31 million in taxes, while Magsaysay MOL Marine, Inc. was third with P9.83 million.

Tax Watch is an ongoing campaign by the Finance department and the BIR where weekly ads containing tax collection statistics are released, with the goal of encouraging compliance. -- Bettina Faye V. Roc
 
source:  Businessworld