June 15 Deadline of Annual Income Tax Return's Payment Nears

AMID FEARS OF CONVID-19

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

CALASIAO, Pangasinan – As the June 15 deadline of the payment of the Annual Income Tax  Return (AITR) by taxpayers looms, the Bureau of Internal Revenue sets the health protocol to shun the contagion of the dreaded Corona Virus Disease-19 pandemic.

Revenue District Office No. 4 Chief Ernesto I. Mangabat said the BIR limits the presence of the taxpayer inside while they maintain a meter distance with each other outside the edifice to avoid the infliction of the Convid-19.

“Nakita ninyo naman na dati rati iyong mga taxpayers natin nandiyan nakaupo lahat iyan. Nakita ninyo naman na may distance limited lang talaga ang papasok dito kasi hindi puwede ang lahat ang puwede papasukin,” he stressed.

LETHARGIC COLLECTION. Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) 13 expects a very substantial drop in tax collection for the first quarter of 2020 as quarantine measures due to the Corona Virus Disease-19 outbreak that hurt local businesses. PHOTO CREDIT. Yahoo.com

The new normal being practiced at the BIR Central Pangasinan’s office here showed plastic curtains separate the taxpayer and the tax agency’s personnel as the former transact his business, everyone inside the office wears mask,  a foot bath wait near the main door for the shoes of those who want to ingress, and a long queue  of taxpayers wait for their turn to be allowed inside the RDO-4 while still maintaining the ideal distance  with each other while waiting to be allowed to go inside.

According to the Inter Agency Task Force (IATF) for Infectious Disease, gathering including those of up to ten people under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) is allowed with health protocols observed.

Pangasinan has been classified by the IATF from being a modified Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) to GCQ.

RDO No. 4 had a tax goal of P4.3 billion last year.

 Despite the shortfall of the P190 million to hit the P4.3 billion goal last year, Mangabat exhorted his section chiefs in a strategic planning to emulate what they had done last year to collect the new bigger revenue goal this year.

If based on the customary spike of 20 percent versus the real collection last year, the premier BIR Region-1 office  will be collecting more or less P4.9 billion this year.

But this could change after Convid-19 wrought havoc on the businesses in the country since  the pandemic reared its ugly heads early this year.