The.Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has told social media influencers (SMIs) such as vloggers to be more accurate in their income declarations to avoid criminal charges, including tax evasion.

BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay issued the appeal even as revenue district offices nationwide began investigating unregistered SMIs as well as those who underdeclared their earnings.

"SMIs are advised to voluntarily and truthfully declare their income and pay the corresponding taxes without waiting for a formal investigation that may lead to the filing of tax evasion, or the collection of civil penalty equivalent to 50 percent of the deficiency taxes," Dulay said in a memorandum.

The BIR chief said the bureau can easily verify their income from tax authorities of foreign governments where the social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook are based by invoking existing tax treaty agreements.

Records showed that the BIR has tax treaty accords with some 60 countries, mostly developed nations in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

The accords provide, among others, mutual exchange of information of the citizens of treaty partners to avoid double taxation and tax evasion.

Dulay initiated the crackdown against vloggers after receiving information that many of them neither register their operations nor pay taxes despite earning a hefty sum from the content of their channels.

Social media sites pay SMIs in exchange for their services as vloggers.

Vloggers are classified as self-employed individuals subject to 12 percent value-added tax (tax) if annual income is more than P3 million, eight percentage tax below the threshold.

Like other individual taxpayers, a vlogger is exempted from income tax if annual earnings are P250,000 and below.