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As taxpayers may know, all field audit and other field operations of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) covered by Letters of Authority relative to the examinations and verifications of taxpayers’ books of account, records, and other transactions have been ordered suspended until further notice, except for cases prescribing on or before October 31, 2022, and for other situations described in BIR Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 77-2022. The suspension has remained up to the time of this writing. However, as per the RMC, the service of assessment notices, warrants, and seizure notices should still be effected.

Last week, I received a common inquiry from several clients – “Has the suspension of the tax audit been lifted?”. The reason is that these clients received assessment notices from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) such as the Notice of Discrepancy (NOD) and Preliminary Assessment Notice (PAN) that were personally served at their respective offices unexpectedly.

According to the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority (NAMRIA), the Philippines is made up of 7,641 islands contributing to the country’s vast natural resources. Despite the abundance of these resources, the country is still at the early stage of capitalizing on the use of these natural assets to produce renewable and sustainable energy. The limitation is caused mainly by the lack of investment due to the high cost of developing, producing, and sustaining renewable energy.

With the continuing improvements on information and technology, it is becoming easier and easier for taxpayers to transact business on a global scale. While this situation provides a number of opportunities to taxpayers, tax issues on tax administration appear to be an inevitable consequence of such. One of the main issues is the risk on possible shifting of revenues to a lower-taxing country.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) recently issued Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 10-2022, which lays out the guidelines and procedures for requesting MAP assistance in the Philippines. This opens an alternative remedy for taxpayers facing double taxation, whose current available courses of actions are only to litigate such case in court or to file an administrative appeal.

In the world of intercompany transactions between domestic corporations or among members of multinational companies (MNCs), a transfer pricing (TP) policy is a must-have document.

In our present era, the BIR is likewise continuing to go digital to cope with the changing times. For one, at the beginning of this year, the Calendar Year 2022 BIR Priority Programs and Projects included the Digital Economy Policy. Under this project, the BIR intends to align tax rules and regulations to capture the digital economy. Included also in the said priorities of the BIR were the re-architecture and development of the filing system/facility, and the enhancement of the quality of tax administration and the delivery of taxpayer services through a Taxpayer Registration Database Management System, among others.

Due to health concerns posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools were prohibited from conducting face-to-face classes and subsequently shifted to other means such as online classes or modular distance learning. Early this year, the Department of Education (DepEd) commenced the progressive expansion phase, where selected public and private schools were allowed to conduct limited face-to-face classes. Considering that the number of recent daily cases significantly decreased compared with those recorded during the previous years, the authorities are now eyeing the resumption of full face-to-face classes for the upcoming School Year 2022-23.