Docs are easy to tax than lawyers, moteliers

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – Medical doctors are easy to check if they paid their taxes correctly compared to lawyers, motel owners, fishpond owners, and other businessmen , the regional director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue cited.

Director Thelma S. Milabao explained that hospitals’ staff have been reporting to the BIR these doctors’ professional fees they billed to their patients.

“Medyo madali kasi. Puwede mo bantayan ang professional fee niya. Itong mga hospitals nag sa-submit sila sa BIR na kung magkano ang naibayad nilang professional fee sa doctors na nag eengaged doon sa kanila,” she stressed.

A motel in the Philippines.

Milabao said that the agency’s personnel have a hard time implementing the tax compliance verification drive (TCVD) with the lawyers because they directly transacted with the clients without somebody like the hospital staff to report how much they received from those they gave their services.

The same dilemma, according to Milabao, the BIR faces with hotel and motel owners.

“Iyan nga pero babantayan namin at least 10 days para ma established namin kung magkano ba iyong average daily sales o ADS”.

Director Milabao did not give agree with the arguments of associations of moteliers that they allowed to pay a tax to the government by counting one client a room as customers are scare nowadays.

“Kung walang customers di dapat nag close na dapat sila pag nalugi sila. Ipatangal na iyan e bakit nandiyan pa sila?”

Her tough and aggressive stance was due to the mandate by the national government for her to collect the P19,885 billion tax goal this year.

“Mga enforcement activities iyong titingnan sa mga registered taxpayers para iyong ating tax base iyong mga operation ng mga underdeclared”.

The other measures, she cited, to beef up the poor tax collection of more than P12 billion last year is the launching of Operation Kandado (Operation Padlock) against delinquent traders in the four provinces’ Region-1.

Operation Kandado empowers the BIR to suspend or close down a business which can only be lifted once the taxpayer complies and pays the right taxes.

Milabao cited these taxpayers could not appeal for compromise to mitigate their fines and surcharges because of the violation.

“No, kung ano ang andoon sa guidelines namin na babayaran nila iyon ang babayaran nila pero na okay sila”.

In an earlier interview with this paper, Mr. Fred Quinto, the president of Hotel and Motel Associations in Pangasinan said that the BIR could use as basis the number of bed sheets and towels used by love birds. He said that the tax man could ask the laundry shops how many bed sheets and towels are consumed by this tryst hide-away business every day.

But some tax observers who asked anonymity doubts the reliability of this measure as owners of laundry shops and motels could collude with each other by declaring a lower number of dirty, wet, and crumpled bed clothes and towels for the BIR to assess how much income tax to bill.

Tarlac Revenue District Office Chief Maria Bernadette Mangaoang said that the BIR could count on the soap consumed by the customer in a particular period.

She argued that this can be checked by the government issued official receipts (O.R) used by the suppliers of soap to the motel owners.

A soap in a motel, according to motel connoisseurs and part-time media men Mon Untalan and Jonathan Tandoc, is used only once as it was too thin for another day’s consumption.

They said that it is a half-inch in dimension and 3 inches in length and 2 inches in width.

They said the averaged prices of a three-hour short time check-in at this air-conditioned room with comfort room and shower is P280 – a reasonable price to relieve prurience.

But broadcaster Harold Barcelona said that low budget motel charges a short time of three hours as low as P150 for financially constrained couple.

“The only downsize is the bed is rickety and cockroaches and bugs abound. While the bed sheets have holes and sewed from different sacks of flour with names like “Manila Flour,” “Royal Flour, etc”, he told this paper in Pilipino.

He said poor man’s lodges like Caliman in Dagupan City used electric fan only as ventilation, and customers share a common comfort room and shower.

TOP BRASS - Four provinces' Region - 1 Bureau of Internal Revenue Regional Director Thelma S. Milabao being interviewed by the author at her office in Calasiao, Pangasinan.

READ: The Anatomy of Motels according to the BIR