BIR bares tax watch on most dangerous buses

Bureau of Internal Revenue building

MANILA, Philippines – In addition to safety issues and franchise violations, bus operators in the country are now being scrutinized for tax liabilities.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Wednesday revealed that a number of “Metro Manila’s Most Dangerous Bus Operators” neither filed their income tax returns (ITR) nor did they have identification numbers (TINs).

“Buses have not only been congesting our roads but have also appearing heavily on the news. In a bold move, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) released a list of the most dangerous buses here in the metro from 2010-2011. The Department of Finance (DOF) and the BIR look further into these companies to find out if they’re proper taxpayers,” the BIR said in its latest “Tax Watch” campaign advertisement that appeared on the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

The LTFRB listed the most dangerous bus operators based on the number of deaths, the number of injured people and cost of damage to property resulting from accidents.

Among those that did not file their ITR for 2012 were Gasat Express, Joyselle Express and Philippine Corinthian Liner, which were all listed as responsible for the most number of deaths among bus companies. Gasat Express was included in all three lists while Joyselle was also tagged in the list of most number of injured people.

On the other hand, the BIR found out that EM Transit Service and AM Liner did not have TINs, meaning they were not paying taxes.

Of those in the list, Philippine Corinthian Liner and JELL Transport Inc.’s gross receipts were listed zero and no tax was paid.

The BIR noted that Nova Auto Transport has the lowest declared income tax due as a percentage of gross receipts for 2012 at 0.21 percent.

BIR also listed companies involved in recent accident such as the GV Florida, MT. Province Cable Tours and Don Mariano Transit but no deficiencies have been mentioned.

GV Florida and MT. Province Cable Tours were involved in the recent accident in Bontoc that left 14 people dead while Don Mariano Transit owned the bus unit that fell off Skyway and killed 21 people.

The Tax Watch campaign aims to discourage tax delinquency by publishing, on a weekly basis, information on tax payments of certain industries.

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