The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has set a 16.4-percent growth target in its individual income tax collection for 2013 to P258.14 billion from last year’s P221.77 billion, as it continues to intensify its drive against tax evaders.

In a statement, the BIR said on Monday that individual income taxes account for over a fifth of the
BIR’s tax collection. The bulk of government’s individual income tax collection comes from salaried individuals whose taxes are automatically withheld by employers, while income tax collection from professionals such as doctors and self-employed businessmen pay less than P20,000 annually.

BIR Deputy Commissioner Estela Sales is hopeful that the agency’s Run After Tax Evaders program will continue to encourage people to be vigilant, and report those who do not file and pay the correct taxes.

Sales said that, “The BIR scored its first big win against tax evaders last year when the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Tax Appeals’ [CTA] conviction of Gloria Kintanar, a former distributor of the Forever Living Products. Kintanar’s tax evasion case is a huge win because of the ‘willful blindness’ ruling that was affirmed by the SC.”

Under the “willful blindness ruling,” taxpayers can no longer blame their accountants for their alleged fraudulent returns.

Kintanar was sued with her husband, Benjamin Kintanar, for tax evasion and both were convicted.

The ruling on Gloria Kintanar is final and executory, but she has not served her sentence because the authorities failed to arrest her and she is now into hiding.

Benjamin Kintanar has applied for probation that the CTA has rejected, because he does not qualify.

“We’re proud of our accomplishments. In the past, the agency’s batting average at the Department of Justice was dismal if you look at the number of cases that actually make it to the courts. Now, the increase in the number of cases that reach the Court of Tax Appeals is much higher,” Sales said.

BIR noted that the incidence of tax evasion among professionals in the country is high. The Professional Regulation Commission lists some three million registered professionals in the country.
About 190,000 are doctors and lawyers who charge higher fees and have higher incomes.