How BIR officials divide the loot from a cheating taxpayer

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Were Custom Deputy Commissioner Arturo Lachica and Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Revenue District Office-chief Jonas Amora of Revenue District Office 8 in Makati City, corrupt thus they died in an ambushed recently?

“I’m very sorry pero sabihin ko sa inyo, isa sa pinaka-corrupt na 

agency ang Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Bureau of Customs (BOC), LandTransportation Office (LTO)—iyang tatlong iyan… I-abolish ko na 

lang,” declared by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Photo Credit: Anti-

CorruptionDigest.Com.

According to President Rodrigo Duterte, the BIR is one of the most 
corrupt government agencies at the league of BoC and the 
Land Transportation Office. Many readers heard that the BIR
 is a haven of scoundrels but have no idea how the officials there
 fleece the taxpayers at the expense of the government’s tax 
collection effort.

As a regular media guy that covered the agency for several years, here’s how the lowly Examiners (young tax men and women who are Certified Public Accountant), their Supervisors, Assistant Revenue District Office (RDO) chief, RDO-Chief, Assistant Regional Director, Director, and Commissioners perpetuate corruption that made even the wet behind the ears Examiners become moneyed overnight.

A taxpayer who was assessed by the Examiner through the Letter of Authority (LA) to pay the government three million pesos a year haggles with the visiting Examiner.

Examiner informs his or her Supervisor and the RDO-Chief about the discount the businessman wanted to pay.
If the RDO-chief says he pays one million pesos to the bank for the government to collect and one million for the “boys”, it means the other one million pesos would be divided by those tax officials I mentioned recently.

The loser in this transaction is the Filipino people who should benefit through social services on the three million pesos tax the businessman should be paying the government.

But the Republic of the Philippines was shortchanged by two million pesos because the taxpayer pays only one million to the coffer while one million pesos was divided by the thieves there while the businessman was laughing after he disadvantaged the State by one million pesos.

These three million pesos example happened every day in the country until the Duterte Administration suspended the L.A because it was a tool used not to perpetuate the economic benefits of taxation but to fatten the pockets of these officials.

But despite the suspension of the L.A, many officials still enrich themselves as those transactions with previous taxpayers who ran around the old L.A still give them monies.

“In my RDO, everybody’s happy here unlike in other RDOs where the chief there shortchange his or her subordinates on the division of the loot,” a proud RDO-chief told media men who befriended him.

Son of a gun, so there are still cheaters even among the thieves.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)