Industry and finance organizations and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) have formally renewed their partnership to conduct regular stakeholder dialogues and consultations on draft revenue issuances to create greater awareness of and generate private sector feedback on proposed tax rules.
The memorandum of agreement (MOA) renewing the BIR-business cooperation was signed on September 10, 2024. It aims to strengthen and expand the existing BIR-Multi-Sectoral Working Group tasked to “engage in regular dialogues and consultations to guide and to give advice on the drafting of Revenue Issuances, facilitate and ensure compliance by the business sector.”
The renewal signing was attended by BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, Jr. and the heads of the agency’s multisectoral partners. It comes a year after the signing of the partnership MOA in July 2023.
The BIR-business partnership is the outcome of calls from business and industry for increased dialogues and discussions with the tax collector and for greater participation in the crafting of policies and regulations to ensure tax issuances undergo scrutiny on their business impact and don’t unduly burden taxpayers.
At the renewal signing in Quezon City, the two parties also agreed to share knowledge and expertise on best practices in taxation to promote a conducive Philippine business environment.
The MOA also advocates for comprehensive, relevant, and lawful policies, plans, and regulations for tax administration as well as the swift resolution of issues to help facilitate compliance with and implementation of tax policies.
Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr., president of the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (PHILEXPORT) in his remarks stressed the importance of this public-private partnership to the business community.
“Among the government agencies that we should be closely working with is the BIR. As legitimate businesses and citizens of the country, we know the productive advantage of aligning our interests with nation-building, something that in principle, we have in common with the BIR. For this reason, the Partnership Group is playing a critical, influential role to help ensure that this objective is achieved,” he said.
“After a year in this partnership, we look forward to an even better, more fruitful collaboration with the Bureau to make revenue payment and collection a more stakeholder-friendly instrument to help facilitate our economic growth and resilience,” he added.
Aside from Lumagui and Ortiz-Luis, the other MOA signatories were Enunina Mangio, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Jose Almendras, president of the Management Association of the Philippines; Jacqueline Yu-Villar, president of the Tax Management Association of the Philippines; Roland Pondoc, president of the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants; Augusto Bengzon, president of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines; Elano Marcelo, president of the Association of Certified Public Accountants in Commerce and Industry; Elma Ame, president of the Association of Certified Public Accountants in Public Practice; Cecilio Pedro, president of the Federation of Filipino-Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc.; Edgar Chua, chairman of the Makati Business Club; Monchito Ibrahim, lead convenor of Alliance of Tech Innovators of the Nation; and Mimi Malvar, primary delegate of the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC).
The JFC is a coalition of the American, Canadian, European, Japanese, and Korean chambers in the Philippines and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters, Inc.