BIR inspectors to look at firms' inventory this week

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is deploying field personnel this week to warehouses to check and monitor corporate taxpayers' year-end inventory. "We can expect our people to celebrate the New Year in warehouses to check inventories of taxpayers," BIR Commissioner Joel Tan-Torres said on Monday. Tan-Torres said the inspection would ensure that companies are reporting the correct level of unsold goods. "The best way to ensure that the inventories are properly reported by taxpayers is for our revenue officers to be present during the conduct of the annual inventory-taking," he said. Tan-Torres ordered revenue offices under a memorandum to augment the pool of assessment officers. Under the BIR order, the takeoff point of the inventory will be the financial statements and inventory lists for taxable year 2008. The revenue district office will prepare a list of taxpayers whose peso value of ending inventory is 50 percent more than its declared sales for the year, except car dealers, excise taxpayers, and those who maintain fast-moving goods such as drugstores and supermarkets. The BIR missed its P810-billion target last year, collecting only P778 billion. The tax bureau is required to collect P798.5 billion this year, and P875.1 billion next year. Tax officials have admitted that this year’s goal would be missed due to various tax cuts and a slower economy. The government has also lowered the bureau's goal next year. As of November, the tax bureau collected P681.9 billion, down from P721.6 billion a year earlier. The shortfall climbed to P56.5 billion during the period. — GMANews.TV