Tax bureau ends Premyo sa Resibo

A PROGRAM launched eight years ago to raise citizens’ awareness of the role receipts play in ensuring businesses pay correct taxes ends today, with both the government and a group of tax professionals saying it did its job.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), through a memorandum dated Sept. 9, said its Premyo sa Resibo program “will officially end its implementation effective Oct. 1...” with the last draw to be held two days later.

“Text entries from Sept. 19 to 30 shall qualify for this final draw,” the memorandum read, adding that entries -- consisting of taxpayer’s identification number, official receipt number and amount -- were to be accepted via mobile phone text up to 11:59 a.m. yesterday.

Ten entries will win P5,000 each and another 10 will each get P10,000, BIR added.

The memorandum, signed by Nelson M. Aspe, deputy commissioner in charge of BIR’s Operations Group, said the program “has successfully achieved its prime objective of making citizenry aware of the importance of demanding the issuance of official receipts by commercial establishments and professionals as well”.

“The ‘Premyo sa Resibo’ contributed to waking up and increasing the level of tax awareness in the matter of issuance of receipts and invoices of establishments,” Mr. Aspe said in a telephone interview yesterday.

While BIR could not measure the program’s success since its June 2006 launch, Mr. Aspe said the bureau has noted a decline in non-compliance among establishments when its teams conduct tax compliance verification and surveillance.

Receipts, in turn, help BIR track value added tax payments.

“It’s hard to quantify, but you will observe almost everyone asks for receipts when they buy products,” Mr. Aspe noted.

Sought for comment, Tax Management Association of the Philippines, Inc. President Rina-Lorena R.Manuel said in a telephone interview: “I think it’s a good program because, in the past, it has actually encouraged individuals to ask for receipts.”

Asked if the program helped BIR shore up collections, Ms. Manuel said: “It might have helped at the start of the program when awareness about it was high.”

While its collections have been rising, BIR has missed annual targets from 2006 to 2013, data from the Finance department showed. This year, so far, the bureau has exceeded its monthly target only once -- in July when it raked in P119.94 billion against a P119.883-billion target. BIR collections totaled P890.71 billion in the eight months to August, against a P1.456-trillion full-year goal. -- Mikhail Franz E. Flores

source:  Businessworld