Philippines' BIR Missed Tax Target in 2009

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

08 January 2010

After the Philippine’s Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) was unable to achieve its tax collection goal in 2009, its commissioner, Joel Tan-Torres, has explained how it will achieve its revenue target this year.

The BIR collected PHP743bn (USD16.2bn) in revenue last year, almost 7% below its budget of PHP798bn and nearly 4.5% below its actual collections of PHP778bn in 2008. The BIR had been concerned over falling 2009 revenues due to the economic recession and certain lower tax rates.

Partly due to declining tax revenues, the government has also seen its budgetary deficit in 2009 increase way beyond its original estimates. It had, therefore, initially given BIR a much increased target of PHP875.1bn for 2010 tax collections, which has now been reduced to PHP830bn after representations by BIR.

Mr Tan-Torres, in a memorandum, has said that BIR should be able meet its 2010 objectives, due to tax-increasing measures planned for implementation this year.

The improvement of tax administration will form a large part of BIR’s campaign to raise tax revenues this year, including strengthening the current campaign against tax evasion; closely monitoring recent tax reduction measures to restrict revenue lost; and running campaigns to enhance the public’s knowledge of taxes, and improve compliance.

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