BIR's Tax-Hunting Evolves

If ain't broke, don't fix it, as a popular idiom goes. On the other hand, another oft-repeated adage says: if you can't lick them, join them.

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As the head of the government's chief public funds collecting agency, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. believes they must "evolve" with advances in digital technology among the measures to improve tax collection efficiency and plug revenue leaks due to tax-shaving schemes.

Lumagui has committed to pursue aggressively the digital transformation of the BIR in line with the program of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (PBBM). More importantly, Lumagui pointed to the Law on Ease of Doing Business, in which they at the BIR are mandated to make taxpayers comply voluntarily with ease and convenience.

At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last Wednesday, Lumagui cited digital transformation as among the pillars he has instituted at the BIR since he assumed office in November 2022. Along with the hiring of more professional and service-oriented personnel and integrity of the institution and its programs, Lumagui believes these pillars have been guiding his stewardship at the BIR.

If these pillars are not enough, it is only then the BIR applies its "aggressive enforcement activities," Lumagui added. Such happened in many of the BIR raids against retailers of illegal vapes and smuggled cigarettes that have cost the government billions of pesos in unpaid excise taxes, he pointed out.

These are the so-called "sin products," including alcoholic drinks that are considered public health risk products. Hence, these are heavily taxed to discourage consumption, especially by minors.

Unscrupulous traders trying to avoid paying higher rates of duties and excise taxes resort to peddling unregistered products like vapes, using "ghost receipts" as well as fake BIR stamps on smuggled cigarettes and alcoholic drinks.