The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has generated gross collections of P2.08 trillion in 2021, the agency said in a statement yesterday.
The BIR said that based on its tentative report, the bureau’s total collections inclusive of tax refund last year has exceeded the 2020 revenues of P1.95 trillion by 6.48 percent.
The gross tax collection is also slightly higher than the full-year collection goal by P 1.95 billion or .09 percent.
Caesar Dulay, BIR commissioner, congratulated the revenuers for good collection performance amid closure of some businesses, revenuers getting infected by COVID-19, strong typhoons and other challenges in tax administration.
The BIR said tax enforcement activities that significantly contributed to the bureau’s overall collections are the vigorous implementation of the Run After Tax Evaders Program, Oplan Kandado Program and Tax Compliance Verification Drive.
These activities resulted in filing of 137 cases with the Department of Justice with aggregate tax liabilities of P 4.39 billion; closure of 523 establishments, and collection of P2.948 billion; and tax mapping of 120,220 business establishments nationwide with tax collected amounting to P 122.40 million.
Other programs with significant impact to the 2021 collection are the continuing Tax Amnesty Program, broadening of tax base, Taxpayer Awareness Program, and recruitment and promotion.
Through tax amnesty, the bureau said it has aided 45,346 Filipinos who failed to comply with the tax regulations of the bureau on time and brought in revenue of P 3.59 billion.
Through broadening of tax base, on the other hand, the bureau posted a 4.94 percent increase, with 4,625,017 business taxpayers as of November 2021 from previous year’s business registered taxpayers of 4,407,353.
Also, the BIR said that because of efforts towards digitalization, 99.63 percent of annual income tax returns filed in 2021 were electronically filed.
