Motels, doctors can be taxed correctly – retired bursar

Assistant RDO-4 chief Charmaine C. Dela Torre

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

SAN CARLOS CITY – A recently retired bursar in this city suggested how the Bureau of Internal Revenue can accurately tax motels.
Arturo Mandapat, the revenue consultant of this city and the nearby town of Urbiztondo, said the BIR should get the monthly bills of motels on electricity and water.
“They (owners) should explain why they have that outrageous bills on power and water and explain why their unbelievably measly declared gross income,” he said.
In past interview with this paper, Assistant Revenue District Officers Charmaine dela Torre, and Ma. Bernadeth Mangaoang lamented the dilemma they face to tax motels.
Mangaoang explained that the national tax office has formulated a plan in which a BIR personnel will list how many cars entered the motel everyday.
She said usually the lists are recorded on the logbook of the motel security.
“Hindi naman everyday may BIR. Kaya nga e kukunin na lang nila iyong average, “ Mangaoang said.
Dela Torre lamented the lack of manpower of the BIR that supervise Central Pangasinan which results in motels not being correctly taxed.
Aside from motels, the BIR scored also doctors, dentists, lawyers and architects for not paying their correct taxes.
Laywer Beverly Milo, chief of Revenue District-6 who supervises eastern Pangasinan, blames the lack of manpower to conduct surveillance operation to know how much these professionals are earning.
“Ang problema kulang sa tao. Sa dami ng doctors that you cannot actually (monitor) hindi tuloy natin ma-establish. Pero sa mga income nila from the hospitals meron na tayong PhilHealth,” she said.
She said the medical doctors are the least difficult to tax because their business transactions with patients are corroborated by data provided by the PhilHealth.
President Aquino, in his State of the Nation Address, said around 1.7 million self-employed and professional taxpayers like lawyers, doctors, businessmen paid a total of 9.8 billion pesos in 2010.
“This means that each of them paid only an average of 5,783 pesos in income tax—and if this is true, then they each must have earned only 8,500 pesos a month, which is below the minimum wage. I find this hard to believe, ” Aquino deplored.
Mandapat said that an architect can easily be tax by asking him why he declared , for instance, a miniscule P5,000 income tax on a P5 million building he designed.
The veteran bursar said the P5 million should have a tax of 5 percent to 10 percent or P250 thousand to P500 thousand