“The BIR and the Aquino administration’s finance team should stop passing the buck on ordinary Filipino citizens and making us shoulder so much tax burden while big-time tax evaders like the Ligots and their cohorts from the previous administration live the high life,” said Party-list Rep. Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna, referring to former Armed Forces comptroller Jacinto Ligot and his wife Erlinda who are facing tax-evasion charges.
Casiño issued the statement even as he scored what he described as another guise to squeeze taxes from the ordinary Filipino Revenue Memorandum Circular 40-2011 issued by the BIR which revised BIR Forms 1700 and 1701 and now requires the disclosure of additional detailed information, such as income subjected to final tax, income exempt from tax and exclusions from gross income under Section 32 (B) of the Tax Code.
According to Casiño, this is basically an implementation of the AIR, which was already suspended as it is in violation of a person’s right to privacy.
“I hope Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, as well as the whole finance team of the administration, can enlighten us on why they rehashed this repressive measure when Congress resumes on November 15. It is as if they are trying to pull a fast one on Congress,” said Casiño.
“As they say, there are only two certainties in life—death and taxes— but while this is true, we do not want too much tax that will cause the early deaths of our constituents,” he added.
Earlier, Liberal Party Rep. Hermilando Mandanas of Batangas, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, invited Henares to a public hearing to explain why the bureau is reviving the memorandum that requires taxpayers to provide additional detailed information on their financial position and operations which several sectors contend to be unconstitutional and perceive to be a violation of the right to privacy.
Mandanas accused Henares of reneging on her earlier commitment to the committee to withdraw this requirement.
He said the revenue regulation issued in September effectively revived the earlier Memorandum Circular 40-2011 which was withdrawn owing to widespread public objection.
In his letter to Henares, Mandanas said his committee has also received objections to the memorandum from groups such as the Federation of the Filipino- Chinese Chamber and Commerce Industry Inc., the Management Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Bankers Association of the Philippines.
“They assert that the new income-tax forms blatantly violate their right to privacy and the bank secrecy law, among others,” said Mandanas.
