The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is banking on more than ₱100 billion in revenue from intensified tax enforcement this year, lifting a two-month freeze on audits as the government moves to plug a fiscal gap left by the disappointing 2025 performance.

Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go announced Tuesday, Jan. 27, that the agency has resumed issuing Letters of Authority (LOAs) and mission orders, ending the suspension that began in late 2025.

“We are announcing that we are lifting the suspension on the issuance of LOAs, mission orders, and field audits, with reforms now in place,” Go told reporters.

The moratorium was originally called to address widespread complaints of “weaponized” audits and extortion within the bureau, but the halt came at a high cost to state coffers.

BIR Commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza said the agency will issue a revenue memorandum circular formalizing the move, noting that the suspension had been imposed to allow major reforms to be put in place

Mendoza said collections from LOA-based enforcement account for up to three percent of the agency’s overall revenues. For the BIR’s ₱3.58-trillion collection target in 2026, this translates to around ₱107.4 billion.

He added that the agency is implementing a “single-instance audit framework,” which generally limits audits to one LOA per taxpayer per taxable year. Under this setup, multiple audit authorities will be consolidated into a single LOA, subject to clearly defined exceptions.

To further ensure clear audit authority, the value-added tax audit service (VATAS) and VAT audit units (VATAU) will be shut down, while audit task forces will be disbanded.

In addition, the BIR has introduced the REVIE chatbot, which allows taxpayers to verify the legitimacy of LOAs issued to them.

Tax audits were previously suspended following allegations of red tape, systemic abuse, and corruption within the agency. Mendoza said the reforms are designed to directly address these concerns.

“With all the new reforms now in place following the lifting of the audit suspension, we are confident that the conduct of audits will be more transparent, more controlled, and subject to clearer oversight,” Mendoza said.

As such, the business community was urged to ease concerns about falling victim to unverified or questionable LOAs.

Recent reports show that under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration, the number of LOAs issued to taxpayers due for audit has nearly doubled—from around 47,000 in 2022 to over 82,200 in 2024. Over a four-year period, more than 250,000 LOAs were issued.

Go earlier stressed that the BIR “cannot survive if these LOAs are suspended forever,” noting that the freeze had already weighed on tax collections in 2025, when full-year revenues reached only ₱3.11 trillion, short of the ₱3.23-trillion target.

He added that the restoration of audit issuances must go hand in hand with the full digitization of the BIR’s audit selection process, using risk-based modeling to reduce discretion and strengthen accountability.

On the same day, the BIR launched the Registered Business Enterprise Taxpayer Service (RBETS), an initiative designed to simplify tax filing, payment, and related processes for registered business enterprises nationwide, making compliance faster and more efficient for taxpayers.