Join Raffle, Uncover Tax Cheats

The joint Burea of Internal Revenue and Pagcor-sponsored game Premyo sa Resibo is less than a year old. While consumers get raffle tickets, and the chance to become millionaires, the government has been getting a trove of data. And so far, that data is revealing how many retailers hate paying taxes.  What is it that pundits often say? To end our budget deficits, the government does not have to pass new tax laws, just enforce the existing ones.  

A popular government raffle program has uncovered massive tax cheating by more than half of the 140,000 establishments whose receipts were submitted by consumers to the Bureau of Internal Revenue for a chance to win P1 million.

From June to August 2006, Teves reported that the Premyo-sa-Resibo campaign had resulted in the gathering by the BIR of some 7.8 million receipts covering about 140,000 establishments.

“Of these establishments, only 52.6 percent had valid TINs (Tax Identification Numbers). About 51.2 percent had no records of income tax payments with the BIR, while the rest had made only minimal income tax payments,” Teves said.

He said the BIR Central Office had disseminated the information to the regional districts so they could conduct investigations and audits.