Only 6,750 of 18K coops secure tax exemption certificates from BIR

THE Philippine cooperative sector and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are working to address issues relating to taxation hounding the cooperatives in the country.

This comes after only 6,750 of the 18,000 operating coops in the country were able to secure their certificates of tax exemption (CTE) from the BIR, according to the Philippine Cooperative Center (PCC).

In a press statement, the PCC said coop leaders, the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) and BIR have formed a technical working group (TWG) to work on the concerns of the industry.

These issues include the levelling-off of policies relating to taxation, implementation of laws and issues: inter-agency cooperation and partnership with the cooperative sector and executive and legislative action and institutional development.

Following the TWG’s meetings on Nov. 22 and 27, the BIR agreed to revisit and review the different issuances on CTE together with the cooperative sector and CDA.

The tax agency also proposed to review an order, particularly on penalties revocation and taxability of a coop.

The BIR also said all pending CTE applications will be mapped out and acted on by its revenue district offices.

On Nov. 5, Rep. Ben Canama led a congressional hearing on the CTE, where the Cebu People’s Cooperative testified that it’s being assessed for P69 million, because its members are lacking the tax identification number (TIN) requirements.

Coop leaders argued that TIN should not be required for securing CTE.

“However, because of several memoranda and revenue regulation issuances, BIR is open to review and discuss the issue,” the PCC said.

It can be recalled Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III had ordered the BIR to step up its ongoing audit of the country’s close to 30,000 registered cooperatives to weed out those that have abused the tax incentives granted to them under the law.

The BIR said it has so far sent audit notices to 474 cooperatives across the country resulting in tax assessments amounting to P1.62 billion from which the agency has so far collected P250.35 million.

It has a total of 29,623 registered cooperatives whose tax compliance amounted to P3 billion combined in 2017, but which declined by 5.4 percent to P2.84 billion in 2018.

Under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (Train) Law, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2018, cooperatives, through the CDA are required to submit regular reports on the fiscal incentives they are enjoying.

The CDA, in turn, will submit a consolidated report to BIR for inclusion in the Department of Finance database created under the Tax Incentives Management and Transparency Act.

Under Train, the report includes “information on the income tax, value-added tax and other tax incentives availed of by cooperatives registered and enjoying incentives under Republic Act 6938 or the Cooperative Code of the Philippines.

With this directive, all registered cooperatives are required to file their tax returns and pay their tax liabilities, if any, using the electronic system for filing and payment of taxes of the BIR. (S)

Trending

No stories found.

Just in

No stories found.

Branded Content

No stories found.
SunStar Publishing Inc.
www.sunstar.com.ph