BIR hopes to collect P95B in taxes from self-employed

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is aiming to increase to P95 billion a year the tax collections from self-employed individuals from only P9-billion annual tax take from this sector, its top official said.

Based on the BIR’s estimates, the average tax being paid by self-employed individuals is only P5,000 even as this should increase to roughly P100,000.

As such, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said the agency would continue to step up efforts against self-employed individuals, particularly the high-earning sector such as doctors, accountants and lawyers. She estimates that there are at least one million self-employed individuals but majority are not paying income taxes.

The agency is stepping up efforts to meet its revenue goal this year, which has been raised to P1.066 trillion, the first time in the history of the BIR that its collection target has reached the P1-trillion mark.

Based on Revenue Memorandum Circular 1-2012, the bulk or P674 billion of the BIR’s full-year collection goal would be collected by the Large Taxpayer Service. The amount accounts for 63.22 percent of the full-year goal.

The LTS group, which is in charge of taxing the country’s big companies, would also be in charge of collecting the agency’s excise tax target of P71.083 billion.

The different revenue district offices, meanwhile, are tasked to generate P355.31 billion for the year. The amount represents 33.3 percent of this year’s goal.

The income goal from non-BIR operations is at P47 billion, representing taxes to be collected from debt papers issued by the government.

Last year, the BIR had a goal to raise P940 billion but the agency has yet to announce the final figures for 2011.

Henares said the BIR is set to release the actual collections for 2011 on Jan. 31.

Latest data from the BIR showed that as of end-November 2011, the tax bureau raised P854.5 billion. –Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)