Total BIR tax collections drop by 10.5% in 2020

Total tax collections of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in 2020 went down by 10.5 percent due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Arnel Guballa, deputy revenue commissioner, told lawmakers during the meeting of the House committee on ways and means on Monday that the bureau collected P1.956 trillion in taxes in 2020, lower than the P2.186 trillion collected in 2019. Guballa attributed the decline to the closure of 119,596 businesses. He, however, said the BIR still exceeded its P1.685 trillion collection goal for 2020. —Nestor Corrales