BIR extends income tax filing deadline to Tuesday midnight

MANILA, Philippines- After a crash in the Bureau of Internal Revenue's computer system delayed the last-minute filing of income taxes on Tuesday, the tax collection agency extended the deadline for the filing from 5pm to until midnight. GMA's Flash Report said that the extension was done to show the BIR's "commitment" to tax payers in the country. However, the agency said that it has no plans of extending the deadline beyond midnight. Only "e-filers" or those who transact with the BIR over the Internet are exempted from the midnight deadline. These electronic filers, who manage their income tax accounts through the BIR's electronic filing and payment system, will be given until Thursday or April 17 to file their ITRs. The e-filers would be given more time since a recent crash in the BIR's online system due to heavy service traffic stalled the online processing of the ITR applications, the BIR said. The agency said that while there are a total of 107,000 registered electronic filers with the BIR, only 1,200 were able to confirm their applications due to the network bog down at that time. Earlier in the day, tax officers were forced to go manual in filing the ITRs that flooded their office due to a technical problem in their computer system. BIR deputy commissioner Nelson Aspe the BIR's computer system could be brought back up and running again, but claimed that the the system glitch would not affect the BIR's speed in handling the filing of income tax returns. Aspe said 25 to 30 percent of all the country's taxpayers file their income tax returns on the last day. - GMANews.TV