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To the veterans, baby boomers, old guards, or the so-called “dinosaurs,” the idea of office work is a 9-to-6 affair that involves sticking to a routine and ticking off tasks designed and intended to meet an organization’s objectives and goals. This “well-oiled machine,” where individual parts function in accordance with a particular template to deliver an intended objective, is a management concept taken from the Industrial Revolution and perhaps, inappropriately adopted by service organizations.

Taxation will always be contentious. Many Filipino taxpayers still struggle to understand taxation and tax compliance; among them there has emerged the view that the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) regulations and processes are far from ideal. So let’s examine the bold statement in the Bureau’s vision and mission -- “The Bureau of Internal Revenue is an institution of service excellence and integrity. We collect taxes through just enforcement of tax laws for nation building and the upliftment of the lives of Filipinos.” That guiding principle informs Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 6-2016, which was issued prescribing the strategic plan of the BIR for 2016 to 2020.

Many of the business owners will likely choose the traditional route by passing their businesses onto the next generation. For those hoping to preserve their legacy and maximize their business’s ROI, however, this isn’t the only option. While keeping it in the family may seem like the best gift you can give, in reality only 30 percent of businesses will survive the second generation. A more effective route would be to explore other succession options available to you—a process that will require a little soul-searching and a lot of planning.

Under the Asean Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) on Accountancy Services signed in November 2014, CPAs in the Philippines may be recognized as such in other countries in the region, namely: Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Lao PDR, Burma and Cambodia. Thus, a Filipino CPA may qualify to provide and render accountancy services beyond Philippine borders and across the Asean region.

We may therefore be allowed to wonder, how will the BIR conduct the transfer pricing audit? What is the advantage of having transfer pricing documentation? How will the transfer pricing documentation affect our tax treaty relief application (TTRA)?

In our jurisdiction, our Professional Regulatory Board of Accountancy (BOA) has adopted our own external audit Quality Assurance Review (QAR) Program, but is yet to implement it. Our Securities Exchange Commission, on the other hand, has been working on the revision of its Rules on Financial Statements Reporting that will include, among others, the implementation of its own QAR System of external auditors accredited by the commission, but is yet to be finalized and approved for implementation. Pending the implementation and approval for a QAR Program/System, there is no local regulatory body that currently audits the auditors in this country, which situation may be good or bad, or should I say, may pose both challenges and/or opportunities to our regulators; to companies being audited or the auditees; and to CPA practitioners, whether big firms or small or medium practitioners (SMP).

Tax strategy may be the least sexy among the campaign programs and the first presidential debate hardly touched on it but it is supposed to be a cornerstone of a government’s performance.

Taxation is the lifeblood of the government. For the government to function, it needs its citizens to contribute to this lifeblood. With the mandate to assess and collect national taxes, the BIR is starting off 2016 with two things: a collection goal through Revenue Memorandum Order No. 2-2016 and a number of programs to attain that as summarized in Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 14-2016.