The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is looking into how much tax revenues it can generate from social media influencers, the Department of Finance (DOF) said, as the tax agency reminded “vloggers” of their obligations as well as the consequences of failing to pay their taxes.
“The BIR is studying it right now. It’s a rough estimate, but we will know once they register.
The other way to do it is to look at their counter parties, to audit their counter parties, like the ones that advertise and all that. So you’ll see the match, that’s the way to do it.
Hopefully, when they register, we will get a number,” Antonette Tionko, DOF undersecretary, said in a virtual briefing yesterday.
The BIR has issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 97-2021 dated August 16 clarifying the tax obligations of social media influencers, with the goal of raising revenues from their undeclared income.
The BIR circular defines social media influencers as taxpayers, individuals or corporation receiving income, in cash or in kind, from any social media sites and platforms, in exchange for services performed as bloggers, video bloggers or vloggers, or as an influencer in general, and from any other activities performed on such social media sites and platforms.
“The BIR has been receiving reports that certain social media influencers have not been paying their income taxes despite earning huge income from the different social media platforms,” the circular said.
“There are also reports that they are not registered with the BIR or are registered under different tax types or line of business but are also not declaring their earnings from social media platforms for tax purposes,” it added.
Tionko said the issuance of the RMC is one of the measures that the government is adopting to make sure that influencers are registered and paying their taxes.
“We can check now, we are asking them to register already with the BIR. They can do it online,” Tionko said.
Tionko likewise mentioned that the government is making it easy as well for local online sellers and people with transactions online, by making the registration available online.
“So it’s not too hard. There are many measures depending on the type of business, sellers.
The latest one is the regulation on influencers,” Tionko said.
The BIR circular states that, unless exempted pursuant to the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code and other existing laws, social media influencers shall be liable to income tax and percentage or value added tax.
“It must be emphasized that the BIR also has the power to obtain information from foreign tax authorities pursuant to the exchange of information provision of the relevant tax treaties. The BIR has the means to verify their income as it is clothed with a special power to obtain information from its treaty partners,” the BIR said.
“The social media influencers are, therefore, advised to voluntary and truthfully declare their income and pay their corresponding taxes without waiting for a formal investigation to be conducted by the BIR to avoid being liable for tax evasion and for the civil penalty of 50 percent of the tax or of the deficiency tax,” it added. – Angela Celis
