Paying taxes
>> Monday, April 14, 2014
EDITORIAL
The government is calling on the
public to pay the right taxes as the April 15 deadline for the filing of income
tax returns (ITRs) nears.
“Taxes
belong to the public, and the public must demand transparency and
accountability from all levels of government in the use of public funds. The
government likewise must ask citizens to meet their tax obligations honestly
and responsibly,” a statement posted on the government’s website www.gov.ph read.
Resources
and links were compiled on the website aside from bir.gov.ph, the official
website of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) where announcements,
information and tax rules are posted to help taxpayers.
The
government also launched an interactive website, knowyourtaxes.ph, to assist
and encourage the public to pay taxes.The BIR has issued a regulation
prescribing the new forms to be used for the filing of ITRs.
The BIR
forms are as follows: 1700 for individuals earning purely compensation income;
1701 for self-employed, estates and trusts; 1702 for non-individual taxpayers;
and 1702-MX for taxpayers with mixed income subject to multiple income tax
rates or with income subject to special rate.
Taxpayers
have the option to file their ITRs manually using pre-printed forms at the BIR
website. These interactive forms will automatically compute the taxes due as
well as validate information provided by the taxpayers.
Once
validated, the ITR forms can be printed and filed with an authorized agent bank
or revenue collection officer, the BIR said.
The bureau
is tasked to collect P1.47 trillion this year, 16.8 percent higher than the
P1.25 trillion collected in 2013.
April has
been declared Tax Awareness Month by virtue of Proclamation No. 812, series of
2005.
“Taxes
make up a large part of the national budget. For 2014, tax revenues (as opposed
to non-tax revenues such as penalties and tolls) account for 83 percent of the
national budget. This amounts to P1,879,918,000,000 of the P2.265-trillion
General Appropriations Act,” the statement said.
Taxes fund
key programs and services provided by the government like the salaries of
public servants such as teachers and police officers. Public education, roads
and healthcare are also funded by taxes.
Earlier,
MalacaƱang defended the BIR’s efforts to improve tax collection, saying the
taxation to gross domestic product ratio at this time was lamentably lower than
in the mid-1990s.
Compared
to other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Presidential
Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the
Philippines’ taxation to GDP ratio was only at 14 percent.
Coloma
said the GDP was obviously much bigger now and higher tax collection must be
pursued to accelerate the country’s progress.
The
government estimates that some P400 billion is lost each year to tax
evasion.The BIR had earlier waged a shame campaign in a bid to collect the
proper taxes from professionals and other self-employed. But if this is not
gaining ground, it is because people perceive their taxes are not being used
properly by the government and being corrupted by officials.
If the
government would like to make people pay correct taxes, it should do its part
by being more transparent in use of public funds and initiate programs so these
won’t be corrupted and people wouldn’t think their money is being put to waste
in useless projects which benefit only government officials and their cohorts.
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