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During a Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) tax audit, taxpayers avoid, as much as possible, receiving a Final Assessment Notice (FAN) or think of elevating their concerns to the Court of Tax Appeals. These late stages of the tax assessment process mean incurring significant costs and expending effort to challenge the assessment or defend taxpayers’ arguments, with little to no assurance of a reduction or cancellation of the assessment.

Picture this: you do a random search on Google for a nice new pair of shoes you have long decided to buy. At the top of the results page, you see a whole set of shoes, lined up along with their brand names and prices. Sometimes, you can even see products with freebies or, say, a promo code or a buy-one-get-one deal. You click on one specific pair of shoes, and you are automatically directed to a shopping site. Once you have added the shoes to your cart and typed in your payment and shipping info, there is only one thing left to do. You click the “Check Out” button.

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) recently issued Revenue Memorandum Circular 107-2021 on Oct. 18, 2021 providing taxation guidelines on the imposition of taxes on Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (Pogo) pursuant to Republic Act (RA) 11590 entitled “An Act Taxing Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations.”

With the government hard-pressed for funds to finance economic recovery programs, much of the burden falls on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to increase tax collections. It is no wonder that BIR audits are proliferating like TikTok videos. For taxpayers, one of the most common fears is being subjected to a BIR audit. Such audits not only entail substantial investments in time and effort, mainly to prepare supporting documents and legal arguments; they also require strength of character and tremendous patience to see the process to its conclusion.

There is a world of difference pre-pandemic and the so-called “post-pandemic”, and for companies, these differences go all the way to the top. Proactivity is now required of board directors as they strive to simultaneously address business-model disruptions against a slowing global economy, and digitalization against effective management of cyber risks, among numerous other issues.

Amid new government issuances and pandemic constraints, flexible work arrangements, especially remote work or “work-from-home” (WFH) setups as we call them, continue to be implemented by businesses. Government orders allowing only essential businesses to keep their physical locations open forced unprepared employers to adopt flexible work options on the fly.

At one point or another, even the most loyal employees have considered turning in their resignation letters and clearing their desks, anticipating the next job opportunity that comes their way. In fact, high employee turnover rates leave businesses constantly wondering about the factors that make employees quit, or at least, consider quitting.

The Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) released Advisory 2021-039 to inform the public about the guidelines in claiming the Covid-19 Vaccine Injury Compensation Package and the benefits under the National Health Insurance Program. The Covid-19 National Vaccine Indemnity Fund, established under the Covid-19 Vaccination Program Act of 2021 (Republic Act 11525), would compensate inoculated persons in case of death, permanent disability and hospital confinement for serious adverse effects of the vaccine.