BIR issued guidelines on campaign tax
Posted on November 13th, 2009
Despite of a lot of oppositions from candidates and political parties, the 5% withholding tax on campaign expenditures will soon be imposed. In fact, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has already issued last Friday the guidelines on the said campaign tax.
Revenue Memorandum Order 35-2009 was issued by BIR officer-in-charge Joel Tan Torres which lays down the policies and procedures of “Project: Iboto Mo” under Revenue Regulation 8-2009.
In the issued guidelines, political parties, candidates for local and national posts, as well as campaign contributors, should register with the BIR as withholding agents in compliance withholding tax laws. Tan-Torres said they issued orders to revenue district offices (RDO) to ensure that the above concerned parties are registered within their respective jurisdictions.
The district offices will also coordinate with the offices of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and make sure that the BIR would be able to issue Applications of Registrations to all candidates when they apply for their certificate of candidacy (COC) from November 20 to December 1.
Likewise, the BIR would get the list of the names and addresses of the candidates that filed their COCs and their accredited political parties from Comelec. The lists would then be matched with the BIR registration system to see if they are registered with the bureau.
They would also get the Statement of Campaign Expenditures and Contributes which the candidates and political parties submitted to Comelec and conduct a pre-audit to determine if they complied with the withholding tax obligations.
They would be sending letters or notices to all concerned parties who failed to, or were late, or were deficient in the filing and remittance of withholding taxes. Withholding agents are also required to submit the monthly report on “Project: Iboto Mo” to BIR regional directors starting next month up to August 10 of next year.
The revenue agency hopes to collect at least P1.4 billion from the planned imposition of the 5% withholding tax on campaign contributions despite strong opposition from the candidates and political parties.
