Filipinos are getting entrepreneurial as the Bureau of the Internal Revenue (BIR) reported an increase in the number of new businesses last year despite the prolonged pandemic, the Department of Finance (DOF) said.
BIR Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay reported to the DOF that the agency registered 4.64 million new business taxpayers from January to December 2021, an increase of 5.1 percent compared with 4.41 million in the previous year.
Dulay attributed the rise to BIR’s heightened implementation of the digitalization transformation (DX) programs that allowed the agency to broaden the taxpayer base last year.
At the height of the pandemic in 2020, the BIR has set its sights on online sellers, urging them to register and join the formal economy.
The BIR also issued Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 60-2020 that reminded online sellers of their obligations to register with the tax bureau.
New business registrations can now be done through the BIR’s web-based portal launched on June 1, 2021, Dulay said.
Amid the growing taxpayer base, the BIR also expanded its workforce.
Dulay said from 9,626 employees when he took office, the BIR was able to expand its workforce to its current personnel strength of 13,818 workers, of whom 6,540 or 44 percent were hired between 2016 and 2021.
A winder workforce allowed the bureau’s collection steadily grew from P1.58 trillion in 2016, to P1.78 trillion and P1.96 trillion in 2017 and 2018, respectively, the BIR chief said.
The highest so far was in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when collections amounted to P2.19 trillion, before dipping to P1.96 trillion at the height of the Covid-19 global outbreak in 2020 and climbing back to P2.08 trillion in 2021.
Dulay also said that since the Tax Amnesty Law took effect in 2018, the BIR was able to collect, as of June 2021, a total of P13.8 billion from 85,556 taxpayers that availed of the amnesty offered for tax on delinquencies and unsettled estate taxes.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez, meanwhile, congratulated Dulay and the rest of the BIR for having “done a great job, particularly in introducing digital technology, which has really helped continue the tax collection effort, especially during the pandemic.”
With the BIR expanding the use of digital payment channels to settle tax dues, about P1.75 trillion or 84 percent of the P2.08 trillion tax collection in 2021 was collected electronically, Dulay said.
The number of electronically filed tax returns of 23.78 million made up 93 percent of the 25.66 million filed returns in 2021, he added.
“We can attribute our improved performance to our DX programs as well as to our increasing number of young workers who are quicker and more adept at learning digital skills,” Dulay said.
The BIR has also put in place its Online Application for Tax Clearance for Bidding Purposes and Tax Compliance Verification Certificate; the e-Personal Equity and Retirement Account System; and its eAppointment, which received around 90,000 bookings from May to December of last year.
Dulay said a total of 76 BIR Offices in its Large Taxpayers Service and RevenueDistrict Offices are using this system for frontline services and 14 Offices in the Assessment Section are using the system for virtual meetings.