Only 3 million Pinoys listed as taxpayers

MANILA, Philippines – Only about three million Filipinos are registered as individual taxpayers with the Bureau of Internal Revenues (BIR), the Department of Finance (DOF) announced yesterday.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said Filipinos who are registered as taxpayers, about 3.4 percent of the country’s total population and about 8.9 percent of about 34.3 million listed as employed by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

Teves said the low registration rate could be improved if new graduates would register and get their tax identification number with the BIR since it was a prerequisite for their future employment.

“We invite all of you to register with the BIR and get your own TIN,” Teves said. “This should be your first official act as professionals and income taxpayers. We need you to register as taxpayers.”

The low registration rate also indicated the magnitude of the gap between the government’s actual tax collection and the amount that it should actually get from individual taxpayers.

However, salaried individual taxpayers are actually the most conscientious taxpayers since their taxes are normally automatically withheld by their employers.

The worst individual taxpayers group are self-employed individuals – usually businessmen and entrepreneurs – and professionals such as doctors and lawyers.

The DOF earlier said doctors are especially notorious for low compliance since their profession did not, by nature, create a paper trail unlike lawyers whose practice necessitate documentations per transaction.

“We need you to pay the right taxes. Our country needs you to be responsible taxpayers. Because the taxes that you pay fund the development of our nation,” Teves said.

The only individual taxpayers who are not expected to pay their individual income taxes are minimum wage earners and those who earn less than the minimum wage. –Des Ferriols, Philippine Star