In my article titled “Model taxpayer charter” that was published in The Manila Times on Nov. 15, 2018, I discussed the need for a taxpayer charter to protect taxpayers against threats on their rights, especially in the advent of various world-wide initiatives such as Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Action Plans (BEPS) and the drive of governments to raise revenues.
Thus, it is pleasing to know that on Nov. 11, 2019, Sen. Ralph Recto filed Senate Bill (SB) 1163, a proposed act ordaining a Bill of Rights for Taxpayers. In his explanatory note, Recto acknowledged the need to protect taxpayers vis-à-vis the government’s mandate to collect revenues pursuant to the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) and the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA), as implemented by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BoC), respectively.