Philippines Looks To Increase Individual Income Tax Revenue In 2012

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

27 December 2011

The Philippines’ Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has disclosed that it will raise its budget in 2012 and plans to increase its collection of individual income tax by some 15%.

This year, according to Kim Henares, the BIR’s Commissioner, it was expected to raise some PHP192.7bn (USD4.4bn) from individual income tax, whereas, in 2012, its collection target will be almost PHP222.3bn. She said that individual income tax represents over 20% of BIR’s annual revenue returns.

In particular, it is hoped that self-employed professionals, such as doctors, lawyers and accountants, where a problem has already been identified with tax compliance, will comply with their tax obligations, and ensure they file their income tax returns correctly and on time.

The BIR has previously pointed out that it now holds sufficient data available to check whether an individual’s lifestyle is out of line with taxes paid. It has been provided with the authority to access information from a wide range of public and private sources to check on a taxpayer’s income tax capacity.

It was added that the BIR’s ‘Run After Tax Evaders’ programme should encourage tax compliance. It was particularly noted that, since the accession of the new Aquino government in mid-2010, the prosecution of successful tax cases had improved markedly.

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