BIR RDO ATTY. ESTRELLA BERNALDEZ, CPA
As audit investigations resume, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Revenue District Office (RDO) No. 84 chief Estrella Bernaldez reminded Boholano taxpayers about their
responsibilities in case they are subjected to a tax audit.
Taxpayers are required to comply with the requirement to present or open their books of
accounts and/or other accounting records during the course of the tax audit, the BIR said in a press release.
A tax audit starts upon service of a duly approved electronic Letter of Authority (eLA)
together with the Checklist of Requirements to the taxpayer.
An eLA is the authority given to the appropriate Revenue Officer (RO) assigned to conduct
examination of the accounting records of the taxpayer pursuant to Section 6 (A) of the national Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1997, as amended.
Simply put, if there is no eLA, there would be no tax audit.
It can be recalled that RDO No. 84 resumed its audit investigation on pending audit cases upon lifting of its audit activities suspension by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR) Lilia Catris Guillermo on September 12, 2022.
Bernaldez said that, “The lifting of the suspension of audit of pending cases is very such welcome. The collection from enforcement, such as but not limited to, audit of taxpayers
with issued eLAs and discrepancy notices, will boost the collection efforts of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).”
She added that, “Under the new CIR, RDO No. 84 is tasked to collect on the average of ₱300 million a month. This is based on the monthly collection goal that BIR Top Management assigned to RDO No. 84 to collect plus the 20% on top of the said goal that CIR Guillermo is asking all the RDOs to collect as well. Pursuant to this mandate, RDO No. 84 will be very particular about timely submission of documents by the taxpayer.”
In the issued Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 45-2010 dated May 12, 2010, the following policies and guidelines shall be observed as far as RDO No. 84 is concerned:
1. The RO concerned shall send a “First Notice” after ten (10) calendar days from receipt of eLA
and Checklist of Requirements, reminding the taxpayer to furnish the requested documents.2. If the taxpayer ignores the First Notice and continues to disregard submission of requested documents, the RO concerned shall send a “Second and Final Notice” after ten (10) calendar days from receipt of the First Notice.
3. If the taxpayer still refuses to comply with the notices, the RDO shall request for the issuance of a “subpoena duces tecum (SDT)” from the Legal Division of Revenue Region (RR) No. 13 – Cebu City after ten calendar days from receipt of the Second and Final Notice.
4. Once the SDT is issued, the RO concerned must serve it immediately to the taxpayer within five calendar days from the issuance thereof.
5. If the taxpayer refuses to comply with the SDT, the Legal Division of RR No. 13 shall perform the following courses of action:
a. File a criminal case against the taxpayer for violation of Section 5 in relation to Sections 14 and 266 of the NIRC; and/orb. Initiate a proceeding to cite the taxpayer for contempt, under Section 3(f), Rule 71 of the Revised Rules of Court.
If the taxpayer subsequently requests for the dismissal of the cases filed in court and submits the requested information, RDO No. 84 shall concur with such request for dismissal upon submission of the requested documents and the payment of penalty by the taxpayer of ₱10,000nfor the delayed compliance and violation of pertinent provisions of the revenue regulations.
“We are constrained to resort to this remedy [SDT] because time is of the essence to achieve our collection mandate. On the average, there are 22 working days in a month within which to collect taxes. Hence, we cannot afford to wait for those taxpayers who delay in their submission of documents for audit.”, Bernaldez said in a press release.