BIR's Cardona allays fears on AIR

The new Revenue District-4 Chief Christine Cardona. She is a Career Executive Service Officer who is preoccupied now in collecting more revenues to help the country’s tax goal of P940 billion for this year

CALASIAO-The new Revenue District-4 chief here allayed fear that the Annual Information Return (AIR) would be applied for everybody as she disagreed that it is the same as the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth (SALN) of government officials.

Mrs. Christine Cardona said that nowhere in the AIR were the Bureau of Internal Revenue asks for taxpayers to list their liabilities there.

She said that of the four million registered taxpayers all over the country, only 54,890 would be obliged to file it.

She declared that those taxpayers with a worth of P500 thousand are required to submit their form.

Cardona said that taxpayers are obliged to list their income that was not included in their Income Tax Return (ITR).

“Incomes that are not included in the ITR would be subject to final tax or an exemption under AIR, “she stressed.

She said that taxpayers that are in the data base of the tax bureau would be informed of this information report.

Cardona compared that if banks are being withheld or remitted by taxes, the AIR would bode well for the country with new revenues raised under it.

She further compared AIR to a corporation that declares a dividend by withholding the tax due of its stockholders.

The chief of RD-4, the premier tax office in Region 1, beseeched the taxpayers to religiously comply with AIR so the government knows how much one owes it.

Cardona said this “new” source of revenue is good for the country that reels with tax eroding measures that were aggressively passed under the Arroyo Administration.

She was fast to caution however that the implementation of AIR would be optional this year after it was assailed by some sectors in the country.

Cardona said that the government would implement it next year.

“A penalty of P10 thousand to P25 thousand would be imposed to those who would not comply,” the Career Executive Service Officer warned