BAGUIO CITY – The Cordillera office of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR-CAR) is supportive of the proposal to and the present tax laws to compel large taxpayers to tap their taxes in their places of operation instead of in their principal offices to help spur rural development.
BIR-CAR regional director Douglas Rufino stated that it is just fair for large taxpayers to pay their taxes in the places where they are operating as what is being currently being advocated by local officials of local governments hosting the operation of power generation, mining and other business companies to strike a balance in the development of urban and rural areas in the country.
At present, the aforesaid companies which are classified as large taxpayers under existing laws are paying their taxes in their principal offices based in various parts of Metro Manila.
Rufino admitted that local governments hosting the operation of the various companies, especially those situated in Benguet, have been deprived of the payment of the taxes that local officials could have used in the implementation of priority development projects that have could have improved their status over the past several decades.
The BIR-CAR official claimed that the available remedy to correct the same is for Congress to introduce the appropriate amendments to the present tax laws to mandate the companies classified as large taxpayers to pay their corresponding taxes in the places where they are operating instead of the present set up where the said companies pay their taxes in the address of their principal offices based in Metro Manila.
According to him, local governments such as Mankayan, Itogon and Tuba, Benguet that host the operation of large-scale mining companies and Bokod, Itogon, Bakun, La Trinidad, Tuba and Sablan, Benguet that host the operation of renewable power generation companies have been deprived of the taxes that are supposed to be paid by the companies in their places of operation because of the existing provisions of the tax laws mandating such companies to pay their taxes in the address of their principal offices.
He urged local officials to continue lobbying with their respective congressmen to support the proposal for Congress to amend existing laws so that large taxpayers will be compelled to pay their taxes in their places of operation instead of the present address of their principal offices that are actually based in Metro Manila so that the concerned local governments will be able to get their due share from the same that could be wisely used in speeding up the development of the said areas.
Rufino pointed out that the local governments hosting the operation of the said companies need the taxes so that local officials could be able to chart their respective development programs and enhance the delivery of basic services beneficial to their constituents, especially those from the rural communities who need access to the same, so that the desire for countryside development could be realized unlike in the present set up that there is imbalance in the state of development in the different parts of the country due to alleged inequitable distribution and sharing of the government’s limited resources. By HENT
