THE Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) tax collection in Cebu and Bohol reached P24.679 billion in the first nine months
of 2019.
“We are on track and we are confident we will meet our collection goal for 2019,” BIR 13 Chief Eduardo Pagulayan told SunStar Cebu on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2019.
BIR 13, which collects taxes in Cebu and Bohol, is tasked to rake in P34.75 billion in taxes this year.
BIR 13’s collection from January to September was 1.7 percent higher than the P24.265 billion goal for the period.
It was also higher by 20.8 percent versus the P20.424 billion collected in the same period
in 2018.
The tax bureau has been banking on Cebu’s economic expansion as a big revenue generator.
Pagulayan said the agency is looking to sustain its information drive efforts to help boost its collection growth.
He said information dissemination is key to help taxpayers comply with their tax
obligations.
“We also want to sustain our enforcement activities,” the BIR official said.
BIR 13 has five revenue district offices in Cebu and Bohol.
In 2018, BIR 13 closed down at least seven establishments, while four more were closed this year, based on the previous data from the agency.
The BIR has been coping in its tax take since the implementation of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law, which cuts personal income taxes but imposes new excise taxes on cigarettes, sugary drinks, oil products and vehicles, among other goods.
The government was expecting that the new taxes on consumption would compensate for the lower personal income tax rates under the Train Law.
The continued economic expansion in Cebu has been an impetus to the BIR 13’s tax collection growth in recent years.
Of the total goal for 2019, BIR 13 is tasked to collect P19.44 billion in income taxes, P11.33 billion in value-added taxes and P20.45 million in excise taxes.
BIR 13 missed meeting its collection goal in 2018, the year when the government implemented the first package of its comprehensive tax reform program.
It collected a total of P27.89 billion in taxes, 12.95 percent short of its P32.04 billion collection goal for the year.