Technology eyed to help BIR hit P1-trillion target

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will use technology to achieve its P1.006-trillion tax revenue target this year.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Lilia C. Guillermo said on Monday that the bureau was maximizing its use of technology as a tool to pay taxes and to make  tax collection more efficient.

Guillermo gave this statement during last Monday’s launch of the 2012 Tax Campaign “I love (symbolized by a heart) Philippines, I pay taxes.”

“Our direction is towards maximizing technology like encouraging electronic filing,” said Guillermo.

Guillermo cited the four roles of the bureau—assist taxpayers; tax collection; assessment, audit and enforcement; and reengineering the processes.

“We often have complaints about people going on long lines to file taxes and do other processes with us. And we’d like to address this by encouraging more people to do electronic filing. That way they can do away with the inconvenience of waiting in long lines.”

She said that the BIR was working on plans to include showcasing a software allowing taxpayers to file online around the country.

BIR is also undergoing ISO certification of their district offices around the country in terms of their registration processes.

“We have also partnered with DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) for a project that we call ‘Philippine Business Registry,’ which allows businessmen to register online. This will make the business registration more convenient as the system will be a one-stop-shop registration for all including BIR, SSS (Social Security System), PhilHealth, Pag-ibig and Cooperative, if applicable,” said Guillermo.

Tax collectors will also soon be given a gadget that will allow payment data based on their receipts issued to be synchronized directly to the BIR system making monitoring real-time and protecting the collectors from getting tempted to use the money they collected.

“We are also studying the use of debit and credit cards for tax payments and we’re hoping to get this rolling soon,” said Guillermo.

Guillermo said that nowadays, technology plays a vital role in the lives of many people, companies and businesses, and can work wonders if they maximized.

“We think technology is our answer. How can we manage to collect P1 trillion in taxes this year? It’s through empowerment using technology, and we are aggressive about this. We are already training our people on how to use the computer especially when doing assessments and audits,” said Guillermo.

Other projects that Guillermo said is being worked out now is the BIR Portal and Tax Mapping aided by GIS (Geographic Information System) Maps that they plan to use to track down taxpayers and determine zonal values for specific locations.

BIR regional director Rodita Galanto who was present last Monday then encouraged taxpayers to file and pay their income tax returns for 2011 by April 15.

“If we love the Philippines, then we should pay taxes on time. Taxes are the lifeblood of the government,” said Galanto.

The target this year for Region 7 is pegged at P14.6 billion, which according to Galanto can only be achieved if people would show their love for the country and pay their taxes religiously.

“This is an increased target compared from last year because we have always shown strong figures. We have collected P12.456 billion, which is higher than the projected P12.421 billion last year,” said Galanto.