Thursday, April 30, 2015

A SALUTE TO LABORERS, OUR HERO-TAXPAYERS!



May 1 is International Labor Day. A day to honor many of us, who are salaried workers and part of the working class.

I do not know what will be the demands of labor groups for this year's Labor Day celebration but, there is one thing that we, salaried workers, can all ask from our legislators and the National Government -- that this, the much-awaited Individual Income Tax Reform. 

Salaried workers are undeniably our Hero-Taxpayers. 

In 2013, out of P246.58B in BIR tax collections from individual taxpayers, P200.77B was contributed by salaried workers through the automatic withholding tax system. That is 81% of the total collections from individual taxpayers! 

Meanwhile, for the same year, out of 14.3M registered individual taxpayers,12M of them (84%) were salaried workers.

Easily, without lifting its finger, the Government immediately collects from the working class the biggest chunk of its tax collections from individuals. Under the withholding tax system, the BIR simply relies on employers to remit the taxes withheld from their employees. 

Despite this, salaried workers are not given the honor due to them as Hero-Taxpayers by making the individual tax system more fair and equitable. 

To-date, the income tax table remains to have outdated income brackets, with the top bracket subject to the maximum income tax rate of 32% being pegged at a measly P500,000. The tax system also remains to be very complicated and the cost of compliance very high, which discourages self-employed and professionals from contributing their fair share of taxes, thereby resulting to a very narrow tax base.

With this, we need to call on our legislators and the National Government to honor our Hero-Taxpayers by seriously pursuing Individual Tax Reform. 

While there was a new law increasing tax-exempt bonuses from P30,000 to P82,000 effective January 1, 2015 for which salaried workers are thankful for, there are pending bills in Congress and proposals submitted by the Tax Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP) that effectively provide for more comprehensive reforms in the individual tax system. 

These ought to be immediately taken up when Congress resumes its sessions this May so that a consolidated bill, particularly on the revision of the individual income tax table, could soon be passed and submitted to the Senate for its concurrence. Once approved by both Houses, there is no justifiable reason why the President should not sign it, even considering the adverse position of the Department of Finance (DOF) and the BIR which stems mainly from the loss of "easy" revenue collections from their end. 

On Labor Day, the best gift that our Government can give to honor our Hero-Taxpayers is an Individual Tax Reform package that will make the system more fair, equitable and simpler. 

Otherwise, with the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) integration starting 2015, we might as well expect greater Filipino worker mobility, largely driven by our country's very high individual tax rates.  

Mabuhay ang mga Manggagawa...ang mga Buwis-Bayani ng ating bansa! 








Thursday, April 16, 2015

THROWBACK THURSDAY: 7 TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE EBIR FORMS SAGA



A day after April 15, we look back at the implementation of the BIR's new electronic platform to review what happened and learn from them so that we can improve on next year's taxpayer filing experience. 



#1: TOO LITTLE TIME



The BIR issued the regulations mandating the use of eBIR forms by certain types of taxpayers less than a month before April 15.  While the eBIR forms have there since September of last year, a mandatory taxpayers can choose between offline and online forms for filing.  Without warning, the BIR suddenly prescribed the use of electronic filing for mandatory eBIR forms taxpayers. 



As such, there was not enough time for the BIR to conduct much-needed taxpayer education and do a cascade/training of the new policy with its personnel on a nationwide basis. This led to widespread confusion among taxpayers and even among BIR personnel.  



Solution: The BIR should have an action plan with reasonable working timeline to implement major projects, such as this mandatory electronic filing for certain categories of taxpayers. Said plan should include among its activities the consultation of various stakeholders in order to anticipate possible issues and concerns from their end. Taxpayer education is also one critical success factor for implementation. 




#2: NATIONAL OFFICE VS. RDOS



While the BIR National Office was saying one thing, BIR RDOs were telling taxpayers another thing. In particular, while it was clear to the BIR National Office that only those seven (7) taxpayer types indicated under mandatory coverage of eBIR forms are required to do electronic filing, the BIR RDOs were requiring all taxpayers to do use eBIR forms and do electronic filing.  There was a breakdown in communication, possibly due to the lack of cascade/training of BIR personnel given the limited time to implement.



Solution: Proper training and cascade of the new policy and procedures among BIR personnel would help prevent miscommunication and minimize confusion between offices. 




#3: DISCRIMINATION BY TECHNOLOGY



IT experts have raised concerns that the BIR electronic platform largely discriminates against many Filipinos because of its preference for certain technologies -- e.g., operating system (Windows vs. Mac), web browser (Internet Explorer vs. Google Chrome), etc.  This is unfortunate because an electronic tax filing platform should be able to accommodate as many taxpayers as possible to make it more useful. 



Moreover, not all taxpayers, especially those with low-income and "No Payment" tax returns, would be computer-literate or would have access to computers. They would have to shell-out money to go to internet cafes, as the BIR even suggested, or hire someone to encode the tax return for them just to be able to comply with the BIR's electronic filing requirement.



Solution: The BIR should design the system to make it more technology agnostic. This is to enable most, if not all, taxpayers to access and utilize its system. 




#4: THE BURDEN OF NO PAYMENT     



Taxpayers with "No Payment" tax returns bore the brunt of the BIR's new electronic filing rule. The electronic platform was supposed to give them convenience in filing their tax returns -- i.e., they need not go to the BIR anymore to line up since they can file the returns in the comfort of their homes (or internet cafes). However, "No Payment" taxpayers could include just about every individual taxpayer. Thus, the BIR had to belatedly issue a clarification via an RMC that senior citizens, persons with disabilities (PWDs) and employees filing form 1700 are exempted from the mandatory coverage of the electronic filing requirement.



Still, many other "No Payment" taxpayers ended up wasting much of their time waiting and trying hopelessly to e-file their tax returns, only to be told two (2) days before the deadline that they can already file their returns manually using the old pre-printed or PDF/Excel file forms. There would have been a lot of rejoicing if not for the major caveat that came along with it -- that they would have to re-file the same tax returns electronically on or before June 15, 2015.  



Solution: The BIR should consider excluding taxpayers with "No Payment" tax returns from among those subject to the mandatory coverage of electronic filing. This is to ease the burden of low-income and low-risk taxpayers from being subject to this administrative burden. 



Alternatively, the BIR may require mandatory electronic filing only for certain specific categories of individual taxpayers (e.g., those business establishments with sales of XX amount, medical professionals, legal professionals, etc.), which have the resources to comply and which the BIR would like to monitor more closely. This targeted approach will be more acceptable, rather than an all-in approach for "No Payment" tax returns. 




#5: LAST MINUTE RMCS



From the time that the BIR's regulation on electronic filing was published on March 17, 2015, the BIR issued 11 Revenue Memorandum Circulars (RMCs) just to clarify the various issues and concerns raised by taxpayers. Foremost among these is RMC 10-2015, which was dated March 24, 2015 while, the latest among these is RMC 20-2015, which was issued in the afternoon of April 15 itself.  



Given that many ordinary taxpayers would not have immediate access to all these RMCs, they largely remained uninformed until after such time, which was already way too close to the deadline and cut-off time. This greatly ran the risk of many taxpayers being subject to the P1,000 penalty and 25% surcharge. 



Solution: The BIR should clearly communicate its policies and procedures prescribed under the governing regulations. There should also be consultation with stakeholders to ensure that most issues and concerns would be properly considered. This is to avoid any misinterpretation or several further clarifications of the provisions under the regulations. 




#6: SYSTEM BONKERS



What is very critical in the implementation of any new IT system is its readiness and actual capability to deliver what it promises -- that is, ease of use and convenience to the taxpayer. However, much is lacking from the eBIR platform, as evidenced by system time-outs and inability of taxpayers to access the system at all. Even the individual ITR forms were not available at all in the online eBIR forms.  



Meanwhile, EFPS taxpayers, who had long been used to the use of an electronic platform, experienced a a complete stand-still in their electronic filing and/or payment procedures two (2) days before the April 15 deadline. This could have been due to the volume of transactions being processed that day, considering the number of new EFPS taxpayers added by the BIR and many tax deadlines falling due on the same day -- i.e., annual ITR, quarterly ITR for individuals, and various types of withholding tax returns.



Considering the value of tax payments that these EFPS taxpayers contribute (being large taxpayers and top 5,000 individual taxpayers), the BIR had to announce manual work-around procedures to allow manual filing and payment on the day itself so as not to miss out on EFPS collections. 



Solution: The BIR should ensure that the system properly works as described under its regulations and other issuances. There should also be adequate testing of the system capability prior to implementation, especially if it involves a significant increase in the volume of transactions to be processed. This is to avoid having a system-breakdown right in the middle of the most critical filing and collection deadline during the year. 




#7: BIR CONVENIENCE



BIR issuances on the new eBIR platform contain policies and procedures, which seem to have been prescribed more for the convenience of the BIR while, putting so much burden on the part of taxpayers. At times, they fail to consider how much time and effort it would take a taxpayer just to comply with their requirements. 



Most significant among these is the requirement for mandatory eBIR form taxpayers to re-file electronically on or before June 15, 2015 the manual returns they already filed on or before April 15. Manual filing came about as a work-around procedure due to technical problems arising from the BIR electronic platform. It was clearly not the fault of the taxpayer that the system was not yet ready for his use on or before April 15. However, he had to rework on his ITR by having it refiled electronically after all the efforts of having it manually filed.  What is even worse, the same penalty will be imposed for failure to refile, similar with not being able to file on the April 15 deadline. 



Solution: The BIR should be more taxpayer-centric by developing policies and procedures, which make it simpler and easier for taxpayers to comply with their tax obligations. This is the only way for the BIR to encourage greater compliance and, in the process, generate higher tax collections. Many individual taxpayers actually take time out and put in a lot of effort just to fulfill their honorable duty to pay their taxes, contrary to some perception that many are simply tax cheats. May the BIR encourage them through simplification of tax policies/procedures and improved taxpayer service. 




With all these in mind, let us honor today all the taxpayers, who bravely navigated and survived through this eBIR forms saga. Let us also honor the tireless BIR personnel, who served beyond duty during the most critical times. 



Our only hope is that we learn from all of these things and work on a more taxpayer-convenient April 15 tax season next year!  


















Monday, April 13, 2015

APRIL 15 COUNTDOWN: ONE DAY TO GO, ONE FINAL BIR MEMO



One day to go before April 15 and the BIR released today its much-awaited Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQs) on electronic filing of tax returns.  

Finally, with Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 19-2015, the BIR has officially spoken and clarified many of the policy, procedural and technical issues encountered by distraught taxpayers. 

For your questions/clarifications on the BIR's new electronic filing requirement, just click on the link below to read the full-text of the latest BIR memo.  


Hopefully, this RMC will be the last episode in this eBIR forms saga. 

And once we overcome the April 15 deadline, it will be good for the DOF, BIR, Tax experts, IT experts and legislators to assess what happened in this year's annual ITR filing and find ways how to improve on it in order to make the system more effective and efficient. 

All for the sake of this Government's Bosses -- our overburdened taxpayers.   



Sunday, April 12, 2015

2 DAYS TO GO: LATEST UPDATE ON EBIR FORMS!

* Mandatory eBIR form taxpayers under RR 6-2014, as amended by RR 5-2015: 
  1.  Accredited Tax Agents/Practitioners and all its client-taxpayers
  2. Accredited Printers of Principal and Supplementary Receipts/Invoices; 
  3. One-Time Transaction (ONETT) taxpayers; 
  4. Those who shall file a "No Payment" Return; 
  5. Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs); 
  6.  Local Government Units (LGUs), except barangays; and   
  7. Cooperatives registered with National Electrification Administration (NEA) and Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).
** EFPS taxpayers include large taxpayers and other top taxpayers under Taxpayers' Account Management Program (TAMP). They are required to also perform electronic payment.  Under RMC 18-2015, however, new enrollees with pending bank enrollment are allowed to do manual payment in the meantime.

Last April 11, 2015, the BIR issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 18-2015, which is the latest among the string of issuances on the new eBIR forms requirement. 

After much clamor from distraught taxpayers plus statements from tax experts and legislators, the BIR finally relented and allowed "No payment" tax returns to be filed manually in time for the looming April 15 deadline.  These returns are among those mandated to be electronically filed by the BIR under RR 5-2015, which was issued only last March 17, 2015. "No payment" tax returns are usually filed by micro-entrepreneurs and low-income professionals. 

However, the BIR stood pat on its ground to continue to require these "No payment" tax returns to be electronically filed on or before June 15, 2015. Failure to do so would still expose them to the P1,000 penalty and 25% surcharge.  

At the very least, taxpayers can breathe a sigh of relief on the eBIR forms FOR NOW. We just hope that the information would be properly and immediately cascaded to all RDOs nationwide to allow practically most taxpayers to file their ITRs manually, just like before.

For a quick summary of how to file your ITRs this April 15, please see table above for your reference.  Please feel free to share this with all other taxpayers who got confused with the various eBIR form announcements by the BIR.   

PS - If you need help with your ITR forms, kindly visit the Lingkod TMAP Help Desk at the BIR Revenue Regions No. 7 (Quezon City), No. 8 (Makati) and No. 6 (Manila) from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm from April 13 to 15, 2015.  Tax experts from TMAP's member-firms will be there to assist you for free. This is an annual public-service project by TMAP in partnership with the BIR.    





Thursday, April 9, 2015

SPLASH OF BIR CIRCULARS FOR THE APRIL15 HEAT





As the temperature heats up with just 5 days to go before the April 15 ITR deadline, the BIR issued three (3) new Revenue Memorandum Circulars (RMCs) which seek to clarify the ongoing confusion on the eBIR forms.

Here are some very important clarifications (and new requirements) from these recently issued BIR circulars.   

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


RMC 14-2015

ONLY those non-EFPS taxpayers specified under mandatory coverage of the eBIR forms are required to use the BIR electronic platform. Who are these?

  1.  Accredited Tax Agents/Practitioners and all its client-taxpayers
  2. Accredited Printers of Principal and Supplementary Receipts/Invoices; 
  3. One-Time Transaction (ONETT) taxpayers; 
  4. Those who shall file a "No Payment" Return; 
  5. Government-Owned or -Controlled Corporations (GOCCs); 
  6.  Local Government Units (LGUs), except barangays; and   
  7. Cooperatives registered with National Electrification Administration (NEA) and Local Water Utilities Administration (LWUA).
ALL OTHER taxpayers may continue with the usual manual filing, which includes the use of pre-printed BIR forms and PDF/Excel file forms. 

CHANGE IN PROCEDURE: Instead of using online eBIR forms, non-EFPS taxpayers mandated to use the BIR electronic platform will have to use the offline eBIR ITR form, submit it electronically, and wait for a BIR email message to confirm submission. The eBIR form and email confirmation is required to be printed out for filing and payment. 

For mandatory eBIR taxpayers who already manually filed their ITRs before the issuance of this circular dated March 30, 2015, they are required to RE-FILE the offline eBIR ITR form electronically on or before April 15.  Otherwise, they will be subject to the penalty of P1,000 and 25% surcharge based on tax amount due.


RMC 15-2015


For mandatory eBIR taxpayers, they will be allowed by the BIR to manually file certain withholding tax returns. This is to prioritize the filing of annual ITRs on April 15. 

HOWEVER, if they file manually, they are required to RE-FILE electronically on or before April 30, 2015.  Otherwise, they will be subject to the usual penalties.


RMC 16-2015


The BIR provided alternative channels for downloading the offline eBIR form package: 
  • www.knowyourtaxes.ph;
  • http://wwu,.dof.gov.ph/?page_id:1 1827
  • Dropbox using this link: http://bit.ly/ImuMLj
  • Direct link using:
               http:ftp.pregi.net/bir/ebirforms_package_v4.7.07_ITRv2013. zip
  • Copy through the taxpayer's USB flash drive from the BIR RDO e-Lounge 

Submission of offline eBIR 2014 ITR forms can now also be done through email without need for prior enrollment. 
------------------------------------------------------------------------

A reading of the various circulars would indicate that the BIR is trying to address taxpayer complaints, such as the confusion on who exactly should use the eBIR forms and the problematic access to the eBIR forms facility itself.  

While some of these measures will help ease the difficulties of the taxpayers, they remain palliative in nature and does not directly address the root cause of this eBIR problem -- i.e., the lack of sufficient time to ensure taxpayer awareness/ education, to conduct proper personnel training/ cascade, and assure technical readiness of the computerized system. 

The only way to address this is for the BIR to finally heed the overwhelming call of many small taxpayers to defer the full implementation of the eBIR system and humbly admit that everything is not yet ready by April 15. 

NOW is the best time to give this much-needed reprieve to taxpayers, who simply want to contribute their fair share in nation-building. This is to avoid any doomsday scenario on April 15. 

But then again, we would not be surprised to find the BIR waiting for that very day to say that hard-headed taxpayers are entirely to blame for crashing the electronic system... leaving it with no other choice but to allow them to file manually on deadline date.  












Monday, April 6, 2015

OUR EASTER HOPE ON THE EBIR FORMS



Happy  Easter! 

After several days of quiet reflection on the passion of Christ and awaiting the joyous celebration of His resurrection last Sunday, we now enter the Easter Season filled with hope.  

Unfortunately, for many individual taxpayers, this means going back to the reality that April 15 is just 9 days away.  While the BIR has expressed in media interviews that it would not consider deferring the implementation of eBIR forms this April 15, we, as Easter people, remain hopeful that the BIR will grant mercy and compassion to many individual taxpayers affected by these new electronic forms. 

For one, the BIR has already relaxed the ITR filing rule for senior citizens, PWDs, taxpayers filing BIR form 1700 and other compensation income earners who opt to file ITRs for personal reasons.  They are now allowed to use pre-printed or PDF/Excel forms under Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 12-2015, which was issued before the Holy Week break. 

Given this, what would be other good reasons for the BIR to finally reconsider its current mandatory eBIR forms rule?


GOOD REASON #1: TAXPAYER AWARENESS & EDUCATION = EBIR FORMS SUCCESS

Many of those who have tried the offline eBIR forms found it to be really helpful in their ITR preparation this year.  They only had to fill-in a few fields and the electronic form will automatically fill-in the rest of the form and compute their tax liability.  However, they admitted that some degree of familiarization and proficiency is needed before one eventually gets there.  

Thus, to successfully implement the eBIR Forms, the BIR has to dedicate sufficient time and resources for taxpayers to become aware and knowledgeable about them. This entails having a communication plan with timeline to cascade the information to all affected taxpayers nationwide. This also requires providing learning modules and activities to help taxpayers familiarize with the eBIR forms. All these activities could not have been completed yet by the BIR before April 15.


GOOD REASON #2: BIR READINESS = EBIR FORMS SUCCESS

The two (2) revenue regulations (RRs) issued by the BIR on the use of eBIR forms currently generate various interpretations from the BIR National Office and the Revenue District Offices (RDOs) nationwide. Thus, even within the BIR, it is not that clear exactly what the rules provide. 

For example, under Section 4 of RR 6-2014, as amended by RR 5-2015, it provides that only certain types of taxpayers are under the mandatory coverage of eBIR forms.  However, the same regulations indicate that all non-EFPS taxpayers are covered by eBIR forms rule. Thus, it was interpreted by many RDOs nationwide that ALL non-EFPS taxpayers would be covered by the eBIR forms rule -- with taxpayers under mandatory coverage having to go through the online eBIR forms facility while, the rest goes through the offline eBIR forms facility. 

In addition, there are still pending technical concerns on the eBIR forms facility.  To-date, online eBIR form 1701 is still under construction and taxpayers are advised on a work-around procedure using the offline eBIR form 1701. 

Given these, the BIR has to be ready internally before it can fully implement the use of eBIR forms by taxpayers. Readiness entails proper cascade of policy information and procedural training of BIR personnel, who are tasked to assist taxpayers in the filing of their eBIR forms.  The computer system,plus its available capacity, should also be fully-tested to ensure that all submitted eBIR forms will be properly transmitted and accepted.   All these readiness procedures could not be accomplished yet by the BIR in time for April 15. 


GOOD REASON #3: EBIR FORMS AS AN ADDITIONAL TAX FILING MODE

For better tax administration, the BIR may mandate certain types of taxpayers to be part of its electronic facility to closely monitor tax compliance and address related tax risks. However, the eBIR forms facility should be promoted more as an additional mode for tax filing available for taxpayers, rather than a mandatory imposition on all taxpayers. More importantly, this should be clearly spelled out in the regulations to avoid various interpretations by RDOs nationwide. 

While there are already about 44.2 million internet users in the country, not every Filipino taxpayer can be assumed to be computer-literate and/or would have access to a computer. Thus, the mandatory use of eBIR forms for all individual taxpayers (with the exception of pure compensation income earners who qualify for substituted filing of ITRs) would prove to be a barrier to tax compliance and, consequently, revenue collection. 

The more acceptable modes for tax filing there are, the better it is then for the BIR. Making it more convenient at the option of the taxpayer to file his tax returns will result to better revenue collection for the Government. 

While eBIR forms can be the preferred mode as far as the BIR is concerned, it should continue to provide and accept other modes of filing, such as the use of pre-printed forms, PDF/Excel files, etc.  By being more taxpayer-centric, the BIR can emulate how service companies are able to collect more from their customers -- i.e., by making available all sorts of payment channels that would make it more convenient for their customers to settle their obligations. 


With these three good reasons, we continue to pray that the BIR will bring to light our Easter hope on the eBIR forms.