Non-Issuance of Receipt: Bizman Fined First Before Being Sued – BIR

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO – Those who operate businesses are not automatically sued but meted out to pay a compromise penalty for their failure to issue official receipt (O.R), according to the regional director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Region-1.

Director Thelma S. Milabao said that despite the wordings of Section 264 of the National Internal Revenue Code of the BIR that after the fine it has a jail time of not more than four years, it has a Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) to follow where schedules of compromises are provided.

“Meron kami RMO na nakalagay schedule sa compromise and penalties,“ she stressed.

Regional BIR Director Thelma S. Milabao

The law says:

“Any person who, being required under Section 237 to issue receipts or sales or commercial invoices, fails or refuses to issue such receipts of invoices, issues receipts or invoices that do not truly reflect and/or contain all the information required to be shown therein, or uses multiple or double receipts or invoices, shall, upon conviction for each act or omission, be punished by a fine of not less than One thousand pesos (P1,000) but not more than Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000) and suffer imprisonment of not less than two (2) years but not more than four (4) years,” mandated by the NIRC.

She said that after the examiner and his personnel tax mapped a business establishment, it can still operate as long as the proprietor pays immediately the “One thousand pesos (P1,000) but not more than Fifty thousand pesos (P50,000)” to the tax agency.

Milabao said that registration in the BIR takes only a few minutes.

“Madali lang ang registration. Minutes lang iyon”.

Revenue District Office (RDO)-4 Chief Ernesto I. Mangabat told this writer that failure of the those penalized will subject them to legal charges after the legal office of the BIR study their case.

“Oo kasi kung alam natin na magbabayad ngayon okay na iyan. Pero dapat magpa register na. Pero despite of our effort na demand the payment and for registration hindi pa rin gumagalaw, iyon na ipo forward na namin iyong case sa legal namin”.

Assistant RDO-4 Chief Aldrin Camba said that it is not automatic despite the word “and” between the compromise and the jail time in the last part of Section 264 because they have to resort to compromise.

This newspaper sees the logic behind this practice despite the language of the law for the BIR to sue all the violators for their imprisonment since it will consume the time of its personnel to attend court cases all over the country.  It will be detrimental to the interest of the government to collect revenues because taxes are the lifeblood of this county.

These exchanges between this writer and the brass of the BIR in Region 1 was due to the raid by the tax agency where most of the stalls and kiosks of SM Center - Dagupan City were penalized by P20, 000 each for either non-issuance of O.R or non-registration after he reported them to the BIR here.

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