Thousands of tax cheats exposed

MANILA, Philippines—About 13,400 corporate tax cheats have been exposed and penalized by the Bureau of Revenue over the last three years using data uncovered though a lottery partnership with publicly listed technology provider Philweb.com Inc.

In a recent report, Philweb announced that since the launch in June 2006 of Premyo sa Resibo (PSR), which encourages consumers to demand for and submit official receipts whenever they purchase goods and services for a chance to win P1 million, a new database has been built based on more than 20 million official receipt issuances by over 1.2 million establishments nationwide.

“By comparing the tax identification numbers (TINs), receipt numbers and amounts sent in by PSR entrants with the information in their databases, the BIR detects many different kinds of violations,” the Philweb report said.

These include receipts that are outright fakes; receipts from companies that are registered but supposedly not operating; receipts from companies that are operating and paying some taxes but issuing receipts outside the authorized series (keeping two sets of books), the report added.

Based on the BIR’s scrutiny, the most common violation is the non-issuance of receipts.

“The Bureau’s Ask-For-Receipt campaign and Premyo Sa Resibo have successfully made consumers aware that they need to demand official receipts and sales invoices for all their purchase of goods and services,” the report said.

Consumers are urged to help improve the country’s tax collection efforts via mobile phone by texting details of receipts to 9777 as follows: PSR **. In doing so, they get the chance to win in the daily, weekly and bi-weekly P1 million draws.

Consumers can also visit and enter receipts by going to the SM bills payment counters, customer service counters and mall information booths nationwide. Each raffle entry costs P2.50.

PSR has given away over P135 million worth of prizes as 124 consumers from all over the country have been awarded P1 million cash each and over 600 winners have been awarded consolation prizes.

To date, 41 percent of winners are from the National Capital Region, 37 percent from Luzon, 13 percent from Visayas and 10 percent from Mindanao. –Doris Dumlao, Philippine Daily Inquirer