The government gave taxpayers a leeway on paying their taxes through credit, debit or prepaid cards.
The Finance Department said in a statement banks would be held liable and penalized for the delay or non-remittance of taxes paid by taxpayers through credit, debit or prepaid cards.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III approved the amendments to Bureau of Internal Revenue Regulation No. 3-2016 issued by the previous administration. The old regulation made the taxpayer using credit, debit or prepaid card liable if the authorized agent banks failed to remit the tax payment to BIR on time.
Dominguez’s directive would benefit primarily the self-employed taxpayers and owners of micro, small and medium enterprises who usually line up for hours at the BIR to pay their taxes.
Under the new revenue regulation that was recommended for approval by BIR commissioner Caesar Dulay, the payment of taxes done credit, debit or automated teller machine and/or prepaid cards should be deemed paid by the taxpayer on the date and time appearing in the system-generated confirmation receipt issued by the authorized agent banks.
“The AAB [authorized agent bank] will then be the one held liable in case of late remittance or non-remittance of such tax payments to the BIR,” the department said.
“The liability to pay the tax rests upon the AAB-acquirer considering that from the time of issuance of a valid confirmation receipt to the taxpayer-cardholder, the AAB-acquirer becomes the trustee of the government with the obligation to remit the payment on time to the BIR,” it said.
Finance undersecretary Antonette Tionko said the new system was a reasonable approach “considering that the taxpayer has no control over the actual remittance of the payment to the BIR other than securing a valid confirmation receipt and ensuring that his/her tax payment is paid through a legitimate AAB of the BIR.”
Tionko, who heads the DOF’s revenue operations group, said the new rule was consistent with the memorandum of agreement among the BIR, Bureau of Treasury and the authorized banks, whose obligation to collect, “carries with it the responsibility to remit accurately and on time such collections to the BTr.”
Tionko said the AAB was responsible for holding the tax payments “in a fiduciary capacity for the account of the national government, which should be considered as separate from the other funds in its custody.”
Tionko said that under the agreement, banks should pay penalties for late remittance, under remittance, and non-remittance of the accepted tax payments.
