The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) raked in millions of taxes from closed shops in the first nine months of the year, according to the Department of Finance (DoF).
In a statement on Wednesday, the Finance department said the tax bureau had collected P547.9 million in taxes from January to September from 178 commercial establishments that were padlocked for failing to either register or pay the correct amount of taxes.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa was quoted as saying in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd that operations conducted against these establishments were pursuant to Revenue Memorandum Order 3-2009, or the Oplan Kandado Program.
The BIR has also filed 14 cases before the Court of Tax Appeals in a bid to collect some P338 million in tax liabilities from various respondents.
Guballa also said 72 complaints involving an estimated P3.4 billion in tax liabilities that his bureau had filed before the Department of Justice are now under preliminary investigation.
In 2019, 309 cases for preliminary investigation were filed by the bureau before the Justice department for tax liabilities of various individuals and corporations under its Run After Tax Evaders program. These tax liabilities were estimated at a combined P19.06 billion.
The BIR was tasked to collect P1.686 trillion in revenues this year, lower than its earlier target of P1.744 trillion.
In January to October, the bureau’s cumulative collection of P2.05 trillion was an 11.58-percent reduction from the amount collected last year.
Earlier, the tax agency said it “continues to collect and hit by sheer team effort” its adjusted revenue goal despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic’s impact on taxpayers.