BIR proposes suspension of Pogos, firms that fail to file income tax returns

The head office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Quezon City. File photo from AFP

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has proposed to suspend and temporarily close the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogos) and business establishments that will fail to file income tax returns or underdeclare sales or revenues.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said during the hearing of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means on Thursday that the Section 115 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 should be amended to include this provision.

“The BIR suggests that Section 115 (Power of the BIR Commissioner to Suspend the Business Operations of a Taxpayer) be amended to include failure to file any income tax return and substantial underdeclaration of sales/revenues as additional grounds to suspend and temporarily close the business establishment of any person or taxpayer, not just a VAT-registered person or taxpayer,” he said in his presentation.

The committee was discussing various bills on imposing taxes for Pogos when Guballa raised the BIR’s proposal.

According to Gubbala, taxes collected from Pogos for January 2021 has decreased by 715 million or 68.63 percent as compared to collections in the same month last year, after some Pogos stopped operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

He said tax collections from Pogos in January this year was only at P327 million, a figure significantly lower than the P1.043 billion collection in the same month in 2020.

Based on the January collection, Guballa said the BIR is expecting to collect P3.92 billion in taxes from Pogos this year.

JPV