BIR interim chief lists tax collection strategies
By Judith Balea, abs-cbnNEWS.com | 11/04/2009 12:19 AM
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MANILA - On his first day as officer-in-charge of the country's main revenue collecting agency, Joel Tan-Torres vowed to continue pursuing current programs that could help the agency meet its full-year target, if not, minimize the shortfall in tax collection.
"We are all united in continuing current programs, which we all had a hand in developing," he said.
He was referring to the following existing efforts:
- "Oplan Kandado," which aims to padlock businesses of tax evaders
- the so-called Key Performance Indicator, a grading system for tax collectors
- the third-party information matching campaign designed to uncover tax cheats.
Tan-Torres also laid down new tax measures that he would seek to implement in the coming months. These include:
- the 5% withholding tax on campaign expenditures
- a high-profile tax monitoring system called "Operation SanTAX Claus," which requires retail establishments to issue receipts in bazaars this holiday season
- new accreditation of tax agents
- launch of the third-party electronic information matching
- plugging of the loopholes of some tax incentive measures like the Personal Equity and Retirement Account law and Tourism Development Act.
"With all these we hope we won’t slide and not meet our monthly targets. In terms of meeting our annual target, we are now short by P39 billion. We will be hard pressed in meeting this. But even if we don’t meet the target, it should be understood that there are mitigating reasons," he said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
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