AN OFFICIAL of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) 13 said that the 15 taxpayers who were charged for tax evasion can now avail themselves of amnesty under Republic Act (RA) 11213 signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last March 5, 2019.
Chief legal officer Hector Baronda of BIR 13, which covers Cebu and Bohol, said that based on the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of RA 11213 (Tax Amnesty Act), delinquent taxpayers with cases in courts will have to pay only 60 percent of the basic tax due, while delinquent taxpayers with no cases shall pay 40 percent.
A taxpayer who has a pending case for failing to pay his basic tax due of P1 million only will has to pay P600,000, or 60 percent of the amount due. The law disregards interests and penalties.
The BIR will withdraw the case and issue a clearance to the taxpayer.
The delinquent taxpayer has to pay only 40 percent of the basic tax due if he has no pending case in court.
If his tax due is P1 million and the amount already reached P2 million because of interests and penalties, he shall pay only 40 percent of P1 million or P400,000.
However, Baronda said that if the P1 million tax obligation is a withholding tax from workers’ salaries which the employer did not remit to the BIR, he shall pay the entire P1 million because that is not his money but of his workers.
“The purpose of the law is to free up the taxpayers of their delinquencies and clean up their records of tax liabilities. It will also clean up the BIR’s accounts (because) the Congress is complaining why the BIR wants a tax increase when there are tax dues that have not yet been collected,” he said.
The IRR will focus only on the delinquent taxes with final computation and no more room for protest.
“These tax assessments are due for collection but are given amnesty based on the new law. These tax delinquents are given one year of availment of the amnesty from April 24, 2019 when the IRR was approved until April 23, 2020,” Baronda said.
A separate IRR will be issued by the BIR on the amnesty of estate tax. (EOB)