Sign of the times: Nearly 100 percent of taxpayers file ITRs online, says BIR
By Jun Ramirez
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said that almost 100 percent of individual and business taxpayers chose to file their 2020 income tax returns (ITRs) online this year.

In a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, Revenue Deputy Commissioner for Operations Arnel SD. Guballa said about 1.4 million or 99.5 percent of taxpayers submitted their returns either via the electronic filing and payment system (eFPS), or the eBIRForms system.
Only 7,139 ITRs were filed manually, he added.
He said that this year's ITR digital filers represented a 1,465 percent hike compared to the mere 10 percent recorded in 2015.
The BIR official said the number of online filers has been steadily increasing the past few years, with a total of 1.3 million online filers tallied in 2020 for income generated in 2019.
"We are starting to reap the benefits of our continued digitalization efforts that make tax compliance easier and convenient," Guballa said during the executive committee meeting of the Department of Finance (DOF).
As of April 30, he said the BIR has already raised P573 billion through various electronic payment channels like GCash, the Paytax Online System of the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) and ePayment system of the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP).