THE INTERNAL REVENUE BUREAU (BIR) missed its collection target by 8.9% in Iffirst quarter, companies having used raw materials tax credits under the TRAIN law (tax reform for acceleration and inclusion), the Department of Finance (DoF) said Sunday.

According to a statement from the DoF, the BIR collected 485.4 billion pesos in Iffirst three months of 2022, below the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) target of 532.6 billion pesos.

However, the tally was 7.2% higher than the 452.9 billion pesos collected by the BIR in Iffirst quarter of 2021.

“(The) shortfall was due to the fact that the companies decided to fully use their value added tax (VAT) credits on purchases available to them under article 35 of the TRAIN law”, said BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel SD. Guballa was quoted as saying.

Prior to January 1 of this year, the Tax Code required that input VAT on capital goods purchased with a total acquisition cost of 1 million pesos and above be spread over a period of 60 months.

Since outright credit of input VAT on capital goods is now permitted, the BIR was 17.4 billion pesos below the VAT collection target and 9.4 billion pesos pesos to the income tax collection target, Guballa said.

By region, the National Capital Region (NCR) accounted for the majority of Iffirst quarter collections with 399.779 billion pesos. The NCR collection includes the 285.99 billion pesos collected by the large taxpayers department of the BIR during the three-month period.

Among cities, Makati had the largest collection with 26.09 billion pesos, followed by Quezon City with 19.72 billion pesos, Taguig with 18 billion pesos and Manila with 11.56 billion pesos.

Region IV-A (Calabarzon) received 19.1 billion pesos in revenue, followed by Region VII (Central Visayas) with 15.21 billion pesos and Region III (Central Luzon) with 12.88 billion pesos. pesos.

Meanwhile, revenue from non-BIR operations for the first three months of the year amounted to 18.1 billion pesos.

This brought BIR’s total revenue for the quarter to 503.5 billion pesos, jumping 7% from 470.5 billion pesos in the same period in 2021. However, total revenue fell by 8.8% against the DBCC’s target of 551.78 billion pesos for the period from January to March.

The government has borrowed heavily to Ifnancing its response to the pandemic, as revenues have plummeted during the lockdown and economic downturn.

The BIR, the government’s largest collection agency, is responsible for collecting 2.43 trillion pesos this year.

On Saturday, the DoF said it had ordered the BIR to suspend the creation of special audit task forces to avoid duplication of functions of BIR offices and reduce confusion among taxpayers.

The BIR also ordered a halt to all field audits and other field operations under special teams authorized to conduct reviews and audits of taxpayers’ books, records and other transactions.

The agency had created special audit task forces on real estate developers and multi-level direct selling/marketing, as well as task forces for Philippine OffShore Gaming Operators and electronic sabong (e-sabong) to verify their tax compliance. — T. J. Tomas