By Prinz Magtulis (The Philippine Star)
| Updated July 2, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - The new
commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) just gave taxpayers his
welcome gifts.
True to his pronouncements, BIR
commissioner Cesar Dulay suspended all tax probes, revoked two of his
predecessor’s orders and restricted implementation of others issued last month
on his first day yesterday.
“I just signed today three orders,”
Dulay told The STAR in a phone interview. The orders will not be in effect
until published.
Under Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO)
38-2016, the tax chief said he revoked two circulars issued by Kim Henares
laying out tax investigation rules against property buyers and sellers.
Issued June 7 and 13, respectively, RMO
24- and 25-2016 stated that real estate purchasers and sellers may be
investigated if they cannot prove financial capacity for owning their assets.
“I am recalling those orders as what I
stated during our conference in Davao,” Dulay said, pertaining to the workshop
with the business community last June 17.
Industry group Tax Management
Association of the Philippines (TMAP), who opposed the rules, welcomed the
news. “Is it Christmas today?” said president Benedict Tugonon.
Aside from this, Dulay also signed
Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 69-2016 that suspends all Henares’ orders
from June 1 to 30, which TMAP had said was supposed to be a transition period.
“These are preventive reviews after
listening to the players. Initially, only those in June will be covered, but I
may consider others,” Dulay said.
Also issued was RMC 70-2016 that
suspended all letters of authority (LOA) and instructing all revenue offices to
provide him an inventory of these orders by July 16.
BIR gives LOA to taxpayers under
investigation or audit.
“I will review them and will clear the
valid ones, one by one,” Dulay said.
Sought for comment, Tugonon said he is
“very happy” with Dulay’s “quick action” on their concerns. TMAP and Dulay met
on the sidelines of the conference in Davao City.
In particular, TMAP had blasted Henares
for issuing rules weeks before she stepped down last Thursday. The former BIR
chief justified this, saying she was merely doing her job. “This is what we
have been asking and advocating for. These rules and regulations are not
consistent with the law which could tax compliance very difficult,” Tugonon
said in a phone interview.
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