BIR Oct tax take exceeds target, hits P274B

MANILA — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) on Tuesday said it collected more than P274.4 billion in October, surpassing its target collection for the month by 8.57 percent.

According to the BIR, it collected P21.65 billion more than its goal for the month, which was P252.78 billion.

The October collection was also P87.67 billion or 47 percent higher than the tax take in the same month last year.

Meanwhile, the bureau’s target collection for 2023 was set at P2.64 trillion. The BIR said this is higher by P303.5 billion (12.99 percent) than the 2022 level.

The bureau indicated that it had already collected P2.13 trillion from January to October 2023. This is P213.21 billion (11.11 percent) higher than the collection in the same period in 2022, it noted in a press release.

In a statement, Internal Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, Jr. called for compliance with tax laws to achieve and surpass the annual collection target.

“With the intensification of the Bureau’s tax enforcement activities, specifically on the campaign against sellers and buyers of fake receipts, and with the continuous streamlining and digitization of the BIR’s core services, we hope to encourage all non-compliant taxpayers to comply fully with the provisions and requirements of the tax laws so we can attain, and even surpass, our annual collection target this year,” he said.