The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said its performance of P358 billion in January makes it confident about its collection this year as the economy improves.
“Our preliminary figures so far for January, I think we’ve collected more or less, in terms of reconciliation, about P358 billion,” BIR Commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza told reporters on Monday.
The first total for January, if confirmed, would represent an annual improvement of 0.82%.
He added that the projected growth of the domestic product by 5-6% this year “will translate into a higher inflow of value added, tax and income tax.”
Last year, economic growth slowed to 4.4%, from 5.7% in 2024.
The 2025 reading was very weak in five years, or since GDP decreased by 9.5% in 2020. Despite the pandemic years, it was the weakest since the 3.9% posted in 2011.
Mr. Mendoza said digitization and real-time, near-term monitoring will help reduce revenue leakage.
“Also, I hope that this year, infrastructure projects will speed up, and that will help increase revenue,” he said.
By 2026, he said the BIR has set a goal of collecting P3.58 trillion. If possible, this would exceed the 2025 figure by 15.3%.
On Monday, the BIR conducted a national tax compliance campaign in celebration of Tax Awareness Month.
Mr. Mendoza said the CHAT (Counsel, Help, Assist Taxpayers) program is expected to help increase collection.
“If our taxpayers comply and if they are not registered, and we register them, they will be part of the tax base,” he said.
“If they issue invoices, we will capture their sales. And that will lead to higher revenue for the government,” he added.
When he visited 168 Mall in Binondo, Manila, he said that other centers are not compatible.
“We saw that some did not have the ‘Request receipts’ display, so I reminded them that every time someone makes a purchase, they need to issue a sales invoice, even if the customer did not request an invoice,” he said.
“We also saw some who had lumps of journals when the entries should be shown individually … We reminded them to enter the entries right after the sale,” he added.
The Federation of Filipino Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (FFCCCII) has adopted an awareness campaign.
“It is a friendly visit by our commissioner to encourage more payment of proper taxes. It will be beneficial to our country,” FFCCII President Victor Y. Lim told the media.
“I think most of us are in line with paying the right taxes,” he added.
He also encouraged FFCCCII members and other Chinese businessmen to pay proper taxes.
Meanwhile, he said the reduction in the frequency of letters of authority (LoAs) issued to initiate tax audits has been beneficial for businessmen.
“Before there were two or three … it was very worrying because of several LoAs (each year), but now there is only one LoA per year,” he added. – Justine Irish D. Tabile
