FOR the government to be able to raise P5.267 trillion representing next year’s national budget, the Bureau of Internal Revenue should ramp up its collection efforts by effectively implementing its mandate and embarking on taxes and levies.
However, BIR may not be able to do so if it keeps on bungling legal cases and embarking on billions of tax collectibles just because of what could best be described as the habitual commission of procedural lapses just like what happened in the long list of courts cases where the revenue agency was prevented to collect in view of technicalities.
In taxation, procedural lapses translate to hefty losses on the part of the government.
More often than not, assessment cases in the Philippines are elevated to the Court of Tax Appeals because the BIR failed to observe tax rules prescribing the issuance of a Letter of Authority (LOA), Notice of Informal Conference (NIC), and Preliminary Assessment Notice (PAN) in the process of tax assessment.
From there, taxpayers may opt to comply or file an administrative protest requesting reconsideration. Then the BIR decides whether or not to cave in, or invoke its mandate to collect taxes to defray the cost of government services, programs, and projects seen to make life easier for some 110 million Filipinos.
Aside from the failure on the part of the BIR to go through the prescribed procedure, some cases were also bungled because the assessment and collection notices were received by an individual who was neither an employee nor authorized to receive such documents.
In another case, the BIR erred in the computation. There are also some instances that the court junk BIR’s bid to collect because the assessment and collection notices do not bear the name of the revenue or assessment officer.
These are simple lapses that could have been fixed a long time ago. But for some reason, BIR opted to be consistent in committing petty mistakes, raising suspicion of conspiracy between the enterprising BIR officials and private corporations trying to evade taxes.
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