RX to healing BIR, doctors rift: Working together

MANILA, Philippines—After a period of seeming animosity owing to the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s relentless pursuit of tax evading professionals, mostly doctors, the bureau and the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) agreed Thursday to work together to set up a website aimed at helping physicians to pay the right taxes.

To put to rest speculations that she was focusing too much on doctors, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares said: “I have nothing against doctors. I wanted to be a doctor and I still want to be a doctor if ever that is humanly possible. So, I have nothing against doctors and basically what my job entails is really requiring everyone to pay the right taxes.”

At a press conference on Thursday in Quezon City, incoming PMA president Dr. Minerva Calimag said that her organization was committed to helping the BIR’s campaign to encourage medical professionals to pay their taxes.

“It is something we should be doing as citizens of our country and to help, of course, in nation-building,” Calimag said.

The incoming PMA president said that in her meeting on Wednesday with Henares, they discussed plans to put up a website for physicians.

“We (PMA) told her (Henares) that many of us physicians do not want to be burdened by all the numbers and everything and all the requirements like, for example, the deadlines for payment of this and that,” Calimag said.

She said the website could be set up within this year or the next.

Henares has offered the PMA help from the BIR’s regional directors for queries that doctors may have about their taxes.

Apart from the website, the incoming PMA president said it would also help to have a software with an end-to-end computer system. “So we can download something online where we can compute our taxes. So we will know how to compute them on our own,” Calimag said.

Calimag noted that in medical school, today’s doctors were never taught to do their taxes. Neither did they learn what taxes they had to pay.

Include in curriculum

She said that these things should be included in the curriculum as part of “coping with the real world.”

Referring to the filing of a tax evasion case against PMA president Leo Olarte after he complained about a doctor being portrayed as a tax evader in a BIR print ad, Henares said there was nothing personal in going after those who were not complying with their civic obligation.

The BIR chief said medicine was a profession that required more time in school so the doctors could understand more why it was important to pay the right taxes. “We all have that responsibility,” she said.

Henares said she understood how some people would feel antagonistic toward the agency. “It is natural for people to feel antagonistic toward the BIR because we are getting money from them. That is human nature…. My concern, my responsibility is to collect taxes if people have a problem with that, that is not my problem.”

Based on last year’s records, of the 1.8 million self-employed registered with the BIR, only 24 percent or a little over 400,000 filed income tax returns.

“One of every four self-employed individuals files returns…. There is really a large gap in terms of compliance,” Henares said.

The self-employed include entrepreneurs and professionals, including doctors.

At the Department of Justice (DOJ) where she filed Thursday five cases of tax evasion against corporations and individuals, Henares said doctors and taxpayers in general could still correct their income tax returns (ITRs) as far back as three years ago as long as the BIR was not investigating them.

Henares said this was the advice she gave to incoming PMA members who raised a concern that she noted was “common” to taxpayers.

“Taxpayers want to pay the correct taxes but if they do it now their payment will be suddenly high compared with the previous years. They said it’s like waiving a red flag to the bureau to investigate them,” Henares said at a briefing at the DOJ.

No prescription period

She said she told the new PMA members that if they did not correct their ITRs, there would be no prescription and the BIR could go back up to 10 years to look at whether they paid their taxes correctly for that period.

“If you don’t do it now, then the meter is ticking. Of course I can’t tell you whether that would happen…. My advice at the very least is that you declare this April 15 the correct income and pay the right taxes,” Henares said.

She said that had the BIR not issued any letter of authority (LOA) to a taxpayer, which meant that the agency was investigating him, then he could still amend his tax returns back to two to three years and pay the right taxes.

“Normally, the prescriptive period for something that is not fraudulent is three years. So, go back three years at the very least. If you can go back further, good for you,” Henares said.

She said that if taxpayers did not correct their returns in the previous years, then they were “opening the chance to be audited.”

She added that when she said taxpayers should correct their returns, it meant that they should pay the right taxes.

This was because there were cases when people would correct their income but “doctor the expenses until they don’t get to pay anything,” Henares said.

“That is still doing it the right way,” she said.

Another concern raised by the PMA members was that some BIR personnel would ask them to settle their taxes but for a lesser amount and in exchange for paying them off.

Henares said that she told the PMA members that if they were not doing anything wrong they should complain to the BIR about their assessment.

She said that doctors should complain to the BIR about this kind of arrangement so that the agency could discipline their personnel.

“So you are not helpless, if you act,” she said.

Anne Curtis at BIR

Henares, meanwhile, confirmed reports that actress Anne Curtis went to the BIR early this week but was mum on why the latter went there.

She said she was not in the office at that time and Curtis had no appointment to see her.

She declined to say why Curtis was there, adding that it was better to just ask the actress about it.

Asked whether Curtis is being investigated by the BIR, she said, “No comment.”