COLUMN: BIR & TAXES
PHOTO - CORONA'S TAX
DOCUMENTS BIR commissioner Kim Henares says she is positive the confidential tax
documents of Chief Justice Renato Corona and his family will be released and
presented in the impeachment court after President Aquino gives his approval.
Henares adds they are preparing the documents requested by the prosecution team.
Video by INQUIRER.net's Ryan
Leagogo]
MANILA, JANUARY 20, 2012 (INQUIRER)
By Matikas Santos - Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares on
Thursday said her agency was ready to release the tax documents of Corona and
his family, which are supposed to be confidential, should they get the go-signal
from President Aquino.
Henares arrived at the Senate a few minutes before the impeachment trial, now
on its fourth day, began at 2 p.m. "in compliance of the subpoena." She told
reporters that she believed there would not be any problem in the release of the
income tax documents.
"There is a case. Transparency and accountability are the issues. I
personally don't think there will be a problem," Henares said.
Henares said that there are laws pertaining to the release of confidential
tax documents. The BIR is only allowed to disclose the tax documents when the
BIR is filing charges against persons or if it needs to defend itself against
charges, when the Ombudsman requests the documents to support charges that it
would file, or when the President of the Philippines orders the release through
the secretary of finance. Henares said that she had not brought any documents
yet because they were still collating them and the subpoena was received only on
Wednesday afternoon.
All documents could be ready by Friday or Tuesday next week, Henares said. It
was taking a long time because they were required to bring the original and the
photocopies and because there were bureaucratic procedures that they need to
comply with first, she said.
Henares said that she was ready to testify about other matters such as the
"doctrine of lifestyle check," should she be called on Thursday.
BIR and taxes Published : Friday, January 20, 2012
00:00 Article Views : 225 Written by : Ma. Isabel Ongpin
AMBIENT VOICES By Ma. Isabel Ongpin - MANILA TIMES COLUMNIST
We all wish the BIR success in raking in all the taxes due to the government.
It is for the good of all. But it does seem like their idea of getting more in
taxes is adding more taxable items to our lives or intrusively demanding petty
details of our daily experience as in probing tax forms and other bureaucratic
endeavors is not quite the right or effective way. It seems too much the easy
way which is naturally, the ineffective way.
Their lifestyle checks on the small fish in their agency with a select few of
them suspended or fired for their unexplained wealth is not impressive. The
small fish are just emulating the big fish and everyone knows it. And so far,
not one big fish has been caught.
Except perhaps for the revolving door figures that head the BIR every time a
new administration takes over, the general citizenry suspect BIR career
officials of being corrupt.
And how can you fault people for having these suspicions when you see and not
just hear the conspicuous consumption that they flaunt. They have an
accumulation of real estate, a fleet of expensive cars and, yes, they and their
families lake multiple and lavish trips abroad.
Add the foreign education of their children, the fancy clothes and the latest
gadgets—from electronic devices to expensive watches. We all know these signs of
only too visible disposable income. There are, of course, the clever ones who
accumulate in secret and spend in secret. But in time, they too become visibly
and unexplainedly (or maybe explainedly) well-to-do.
If this is the situation and I do not think it can be denied, the most
effective thing that the true and honest BIR leadership can do is clean out
their augean stables of crooked examiners, auditors, and directors or whatever
titles these corrupt officials come by. Here is where the money that is supposed
to be taxes turns into privatized income leaving a pittance as taxes.
So, if the BIR wants to raise the tax take, it need not look into new taxes
or convoluted demands for private information. It need only see to it that it
collects the amount of taxes due. That can only be done by cleaning up its
stables, the kingdoms of darkness that have been there for decades, growing as
time passes, more grasping as the economy grows. There is where the problem lies
and where the solution can be found.
But it is easier said than done. So, in that case it is easier to think up
more taxes than to try to collect the right amount of taxes.
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
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