By Zinnia B.
Dela Peña (The Philippine Star) | Updated June 7, 2013 - 12:00am
MANILA,
Philippines - The new regulations requiring all business establishments to print new official
receipts, invoices and other business documents
will proceed as scheduled on July 1, 2013, the Bureau of Internal
Revenue (BIR) said yesterday.
BIR
Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares said “the complaints against the new
regulation are without any basis” and that business establishments were given
more than enough time to meet the requirement.
Henares said
the BIR issued the new policy last year and published the same in a newspaper
of general circulation informing the parties concerned that existing receipts
would expire on June 30, 2013.
“We believe
that six months is enough preparation for everyone to comply with such
requirement,” Henares pointed out.
The BIR, in
issuing this new regulations, aims to regulate further the printing of all
invoices, set validity period and generate reports relative to the Authority to
Print official receipts.
This was an
offshoot of the agency’s discovery of businesses registered with the BIR that
are not really engaged in any business except to sell invoices, thereby
defrauding the government of billions in tax revenues.
These
businesses, the BIR noted, sell their
invoices to entities who are either engaged in smuggling and/or purchasing
goods without receipts. When BIR looked for these companies, mostly Small and
Medium Enterprises, they cannot be found.
The BIR also
discovered that a lot of invoices that were printed in the ‘70s are still being
used.
Henares said
the issuance of new receipts is also aimed at reforming the process of
accrediting printers as well as addressing complaints against some BIR
personnel engaged in the printing business who make it difficult for taxpayers
to register and/or secure authority to print unless they get to print the
receipts of said taxpayers.
The
regulations disqualify printers with relatives working in the BIR.
All existing
unused/unissued receipts or invoices shall be valid until June 30 and must be
surrendered to the BIR for destruction.
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