Regional BIR to probe small business taxpayers

By Jun Ramirez

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has transferred the investigation of all small business taxpayers nationwide to the office audit section (OAS) of the assessment division in every revenue region.
    BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay issued Revenue Memorandum Order 1-2021 to rationalize audit work and fully utilize the OAS.
    This way, examiners assigned to the revenue district office (RDO) of the same regional office can concentrate on investigating medium and big companies.
    The memorandum stated that OAS will handle cases of businesses reporting annual gross sales of P20 million and below.
    The OAS based in Metro Manila is authorized to audit the highest threshold of P20 million and lower amounts for those in the provinces.
    Insiders said the bureau cannot handle the investigation of all taxpayers yearly due to lack of manpower.
    They said that of the estimated 10,000 workforce, only 3,000 are examiners which are insufficient to look into the financial statements submitted yearly by more than two million individual and corporate taxpayers.