BIR collections to hit P1 trillion this year

For the first time in more than a century of operation, the Bureau of Internal Revenue will reach P1 trillion in tax collections. According to BIR Commissioner Kim Henares, reaching P1 trillion in collections (which account for 70 percent of total government revenues) in 2012 is nearly a sure thing. Reaching the bureau’s actual revenue target of P1.066 trillion, however, will be more difficult. “We will not have a problem hitting P1 trillion and we will work hard to achieve the P1.066-trillion target,” Henares told reporters Wednesday. The tax chief said that some of the bureau’s initiatives, such as its new VAT Audit Program, have been paying off. “If you look at the VAT performance system, there is now an improvement. It’s is now closer to the target,” she said. The VAT Tax Audit Program was launched in September with the bureau's aim of exceeding its VAT collection goal of P226.18 billion. Under the program, a team composed of a VAT audit manager and revenue officers will audit and investigate the first and second quarter 2012 VAT returns of Large Taxpayers and NCR taxpayers and every quarter thereafter. According to the BIR, any of the following criteria will be applied in selecting VAT taxpayers for audit: taxpayers whose VAT compliance is below established industry benchmarks; taxpayers whose VAT returns for the succeeding quarters show substantial decrease in tax payment; taxpayers whose VAT returns reflect substantial input taxes from importations and local purchases, such as when the total purchases claimed exceed 75 percent of the total sales; and taxpayers with no VAT return filed in any quarter or all the quarters in 2011. — BM, GMA News