BIR expects tax amnesty to boost 2019 collections The revenue goal will increase to P3.

573 trillion next

MANILA, Philippines – The upcoming amnesty
programs on delinquencies and estate taxes will
help the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) achieve its
reduced collection target of P2.27 trillion for 2019,
Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar R. Dulay said
Monday.
year, P3.985 trillion in 2021, and hit P4.438 trillion in
2022.
In 2018, total revenues grew 15.2 percent and
exceeded the target by 0.1 percent “due to higher
tax collections following the TRAIN Law and non-tax
revenues,” the Department of Budget and
Management (DBM) said.

“We expect to have a growth rate of a double-digit

figure—more than 10 percent because the increase
in goal for this year is about 14.8 percent. So we
should try to hit that figure as much as possible.
Hopefully, we should go above P2 trillion this 2019,”
Dulay told reporters.
The BIR collected P1.962 trillion in taxes last year, 4-
percent below target.

Its 2019 collection goal was reduced from P2.33

trillion previously as President Duterte vetoed the
provision on general amnesty from Republic Act (RA)
No. 11213 or the Tax Amnesty Act of 2019, which
would have raised P6.82 billion from unpaid internal
revenue taxes, except customs and import duties,
since 2017 and prior years.

Dulay was nonetheless hopeful that the amnesty on

delinquencies and estate tax amnesty will allow the
BIR to collect more this year.
The Department of Finance (DOF) had estimated
additional revenues from estate tax amnesty to
reach P6.28 billion, while the amnesty on
delinquencies would generate a bigger P21.26
billion.
The Duterte administration’s comprehensive tax
reform program is expected to add an average of
P214.5 billion in revenues yearly over the medium
term and bring the total revenue take above the P4-
trillion mark by 2022.
Under the fiscal targets approved by Cabinet-level,
interagency Development Budget Coordination
Committee (DBCC) last March 13, the government
wanted to collect P3.15 trillion in tax and non-tax
revenues this year, up by a tenth from P2.85 trillion
last year.
For 2019, the DBCC had said that the Tax Reform for
Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act and package
1B sans the e-receipts program scheduled to be
piloted next year will generate P162.2 billion.