BIR warns April could be a bad collection month

April, normally the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) strongest month, may prove to be a disappointment given business losses from last year’s typhoons. BIR Commissioner Joel L. Tan-Torres, who said today’s income tax filing deadline would not be extended, said April could be "really difficult to meet." He also bared an expanded list of top individual taxpayers in 2008. The bureau is expected to earn P86 billion this month, but Tan-Torres said some P7-9 billion in corporate revenues may have been lost due to last year’s storms. Tax-eroding measures passed by Congress will also have an impact, he added, even as he noted that collections from April 1 to 9, at P2.96 billion, were up from P1.29 billion in the same period last year. He said the agency had exceeded its P157.7-billion first-quarter goal, collecting P172.3 billion. The March tally was P56.7 billion, also better than the P53.4-billion target. Finance Secretary Margarito B. Teves said the government was on track to meet its first-quarter deficit goal of P110.9 billion. This year’s full-year target is P293.2 billion, down from last year’s record shortfall of P298.5 billion. Meanwhile, Tan-Torres identified the top 20 individual taxpayers for 2008 — from the five previously named — whom he said had paid an average of P28.8 million. At the top of the list was Emmanuel "Manny" Dapidran Pacquiao, followed by Elaine Bautista Gardiola, Ronaldo Romero Soliman, Rainero Manapat Borja, Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., Wilfredo "Willy" Buendia Revillame, Francisco dela Fuenta Guerra III and Kristina "Kris" Aquino Yap. Other names on the list were Patricia Miranda Zobel de Ayala, Manuel Bayan Zamora Jr., Eduardo Murphy Cojuangco, Manuel Velez Pangilinan, Beatriz Susana Zobel de Ayala Urquijo, Gigi Chio Ibasco, Manuel Moreno Lopez, Christopher Salcedo Co, Justo Aboitiz Ortiz, Jose Nonato "Piolo" Pascual, Ramon See Ang and Federico Rufino Lopez. — BusinessWorld