By Prinz P. Magtulis (The Philippine
Star) | Updated July 21, 2016 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines – At least 44 tax
regulations and rulings, the bulk of which came from the previous
administration, were formally asked to be reviewed or revoked by the Tax
Management Association of the Philippines (TMAP).
In a letter dated June 19, TMAP
submitted to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez a “wish list” of regulations
and orders by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) it wants revisited.
Of the 44 cited issuances, 38 were
issued by former BIR commissioner Kim Henares.
“We would like to recommend for
revocation and/or amendment in order to help the BIR attain the following
objectives: increase tax collection, simplify taxation rules to enhance the
ease of doing business, encourage voluntary compliance, prevent corruption...,”
TMAP said in the letter.
Sought for comment, Henares maintained
her issuances have legal basis.
“If it has no legal basis, the issuance
thereof could have been questioned in court,” she said in a text message.
Covered by the list are tax transactions
on sales of unlisted shares of stock, the withholding of taxes, deadline on
filing value-added tax refund claims and cutting time a taxpayer may challenge
his or her tax assessment.
They also include “unreasonable” and
“unclear” reportorial and bookkeeping requirements that “increases the cost of
business,” TMAP said.
The group also challenges “too onerous”
computation on interest and penalties for late filing of taxes,
“unconstitutional” requirement to validate tax exemptions as well as ruling on
joint ventures “with no legal basis.”
Not all issuances came from Henares.
TMAP was also calling for the cancellation of six regulations dating back as
far as 1982.
These include “inconsistent”
changes to costs computation for gross
income and imposition of donor’s tax on non-book value on stock transactions.
Prior to this, TMAP already scored a
victory after Henares’ successor, Caesar Dulay, repealed an issuance that would
have laid out tax probe rules for property buyers and sellers.
Dulay had also suspended implementation
of Henares’ other orders last month.
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