Tax spikes after BIR’s new zonal valuation takes effect

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

URDANETA CITY – The second half of this year would be a bonanza in tax collection for the three Revenue District Offices of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Pangasinan after the new zonal valuation would be implemented.

RDO-6 Chief Maria Isabel B. Utit said the implementation of the valuation would be this coming June.

“Hinde pa maimplement kasi wala pa publication. This April publication ngayon May or June implementation niya. Ang naaprove ay RDOs 4, 5 and 6 in Pangasinan,” the CPA-Lawyer stressed.

BIGWIGS. Bigwigs of the Bureau of Internal Revenue pose for posterity during their visit to the office of BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay in Manila. From left: BIR Eastern Pangasinan Chief Maria Isabel Utit, former BIR Region-1 Director Marina de Guzman, Current BIR Regional DirectorTeresita M. Dizon (fifth from left), and BIR Central Pangasinan Chief Merlyn Vicente (extreme right).

Assistant RDO-Chief Charmaine dela Torre said the new zonal valuation would be implemented this coming May 31.

Utit, who oversees Eastern Pangasinan, said the average increase of the new zonal valuation would be forty percent compared to the average taxes being collected in the old valuation.

The Department of Finance approved the new zonal valuation last April after the BIR in Pangasinan conducted a hearing to stakeholders late last year.

RDO-4 Chief Merlyn Vicente said the increase in valuation was done because the government needs more monies to fund its workers and projects.

“This is not to be used in the collection of RPT (real property taxes), but only sales, donations and real estate taxes,” Vicente, who administers Central Pangasinan, stressed.

RDO-5 oversees Western Pangasinan.

Vicente’s Assistant Revenue District Office’ Chief Trina Villamil said the Zonal Valuation’s hearing last November was attended by members of the technical committee on property valuation, BIR Region-1 Regional Director Marina C. de Guzman, Assistant Regional Director Antonio Jonathan G. Jaminolo, the members of the sub-technical committee, assessors from the 16 local government units and the provincial government.

“The zonal valuation should be updated every three years as mandated by the tax code,” Villamil cited.

Before the new appraisal, zonal valuation in Pangasinan was far below to the assessment of those in  Ilocos Norte Province

A BIR official who asked anonymity asked:”Papayag ba kayong mga taga Dagupan City na ang highest valuation niyo sa Poblacion Oeste is 35 thousand pesos (per square meter) lang while sa Laoag City (Ilocos Norte) is 100 thousand pesos na ang pinaka mataas, e mas asensado ang Dagupan kaysa sa Laoag?”