The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is expecting a bigger jump on withholding tax collections from employees of the Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (Pogo) industry, as more service providers are expected to remit taxes to the bureau on August 10 in line with government’s effort to collect the right amount of taxes from foreign nationals working in the country.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel S.D. Guballa said that after being able to collect withholding taxes of an initial P200 million in July from six Pogo companies, the bureau expects other companies in the sector will follow suit in remitting the withholding taxes of their employees to the BIR.
“August 10 is [the] deadline for the monthly remittance of withholding tax on compensation,” Guballa said in a text message.
The Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor) has issued licenses to 248 Pogo service providers to operate in the country, which means that the remaining 242 service providers are expected to remit their employee tax deficiency.
Based on the BIR’s web site, employers who are remitting the withholding tax of their employees through manual means, or through the eBIR form, have on or before the 10th day following the close of the month to pay the taxes to the BIR, while those employers who are remitting through the bureau’s Electronic Filing and Payment System can pay on or before the 15th day of the following month.
During its 115th anniversary observance last week, the BIR reported that it has collected an initial P200 million from six companies working in the Pogo sector for July based on its preliminary figures.
Last month, the Department of Finance said the BIR is fast-tracking the processing of Taxpayer Identification Numbers (TIN) for foreign nationals working in the country, including those working in the Pogo sector.
Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III said that the tax collections from the foreign nationals working in the country will ramp up further once they are all issued TINs, with an estimated monthly collection of P2 billion in taxes being eyed from the sector alone.
Dominguez has been observed to be the main driving force behind getting various agencies involved in collecting income taxes from alien labor working in the country.
He said that the Bureau of Immigration, Pagcor, Department of Labor and Employment, and law-enforcement agencies such as the Philippine National Police and National Bureau of Investigation should get their act together to weed out illegal aliens working in the country.