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MANILA, Philippines — Under the Duterte administration, the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) digitalization transformation (DX) programs were boosted, complimented by a growing workforce of young and skilled professionals, allowing the agency to increase its collection performance and broaden the taxpayer base in 2021.

Despite the pandemic, BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay reported to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that 4.63 million business taxpayers were registered last year, a 5.14 percent increase from the previous year’s 4.41 million.

The BIR’s collection has consistently increased since President Rodrigo Duterte took office, rising from PHP1.58 trillion in 2016 to PHP1.78 trillion and PHP1.96 trillion in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The greatest sum collected so far was PHP2.19 trillion in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, before falling to PHP1.96 trillion at the height of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) global outbreak in 2020 and rising to PHP2.08 trillion in 2021.

According to Dulay, since the tax amnesty law went into force in 2018, the BIR has been able to recover PHP13.8 billion from 85,556 taxpayers who took advantage of the amnesty program for tax delinquencies and unpaid estate taxes as of June 2021.

Dominguez praised Dulay and the rest of the BIR for “doing an outstanding job, particularly in integrating digital technology, which has greatly aided in continuing the tax collecting effort, particularly during the pandemic.”

According to Dulay, nearly PHP1.75 trillion, or 84 percent of the PHP2.08 trillion tax collection, was collected electronically last year as the BIR expanded its use of digital payment methods to settle tax dues.

He noted that the 23.78 million electronically filed tax returns accounted for 93 percent of the 25.66 million total returns filed in 2021.

“Our better performance can be attributed to our DX programs as well as our growing number of young personnel who are faster and more effective at learning digital skills,” Dulay added.

He claimed that the BIR was able to grow its employment from 9,626 people in 2016 to 13,818 workers today, with 6,540 (or 44 percent) hired between 2016 and 2021, net of separations (retirement and resignations).

The Internal Revenue Integrated System (IRIS), which serves as the bureau’s central tool and repository for processing taxpayer information, and the Enhanced Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (IRSIS), which manages the ordering, production, distribution, affixing, and tracking of revenue stamps to monitor the proper payment of excise taxes on tobacco products, are two of the BIR’s DX initiatives so far.

According to Dulay, new business registrations can now be done via the BIR’s web-based platform https://www.bir.gov.ph/newbizreg/, which was introduced on June 1, 2021.

The BIR has also launched its online application for tax clearance for bidding purposes and a tax compliance verification certificate, as well as its e-Personal Equity and Retirement Account System and eAppointment, which got about 90,000 bookings from May to December last year.

According to Dulay, this system is used by 76 BIR offices in its Large Taxpayers Service and Revenue District Offices for frontline services, and 14 offices in the Assessment Section use it for virtual meetings.

The BIR also created a single hotline number and its website Chatbot “REVIE” in June of last year to assist taxpayers with general inquiries, in addition to the ability to contact the bureau with their problems.

To make it easier for taxpayers to pay taxes online, it has improved its Electronic Filing and Payment System (eFPS), Electronic Fund Transfer Instructions System (eFTIS), and other e-payment channels.

According to Dulay, the BIR has also uploaded 100 percent of statutes and legislative judgments, as well as foreign tax affairs rulings, from 2016 to the second quarter of 2021.

The BIR received several citations and awards as a result of these efforts, including a resolution from the House of Representatives congratulating and commending the BIR and President Duterte’s entire economic team for collecting PHP1.96 trillion, or 15.14 percent more than the bureau’s target for the fiscal year 2020, despite the pandemic’s economic challenges.

The BIR has also named the top agency with the highest case resolution rate by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) in 2021, while the Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) praised the bureau for carefully sticking to its “no cutoff, no lunch break” policy, according to Dulay.

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