Bureau of Internal Revenue

 

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued the following:

An Advisory, 27 October 2020, to warn the public of malicious emails sent to taxpayers, making it appear to have originated from the BIR or Email Spoofing.

Email Spoofing is the act of forging an email header so that the message appears to have originated from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. It is a tactic used in phishing and spam campaigns since people are more likely to open an email when they think it came from a legitimate source.

The BIR strongly advises the following in case a taxpayer receives an email similar to the sample below:

1. Do not click the link and/or attachment;
2. Close the message immediately; and
3. Delete it from your inbox.

BIR Updates (Issue No. 16) on the scheduling and booking of online/virtual meetings with Revenue Officials and personnel through the BIR’s eAppointment facility.

Virtual meetings (via Microsoft Teams) may be scheduled and booked through the eAppointment facility found on the BIR’s official website.

The BIR eAppointment is available to registered taxpayers of the following BIR Offices: 

Dates	BIR Offices
From October 19, 2020	BIR’s Large Taxpayers Service: Regular Large Taxpayers Audit Divisions I, II and III; Excise Large Taxpayers Audit Divisions I and II; and Excise LT Field Operations Division
From October 26, 2020	Large Taxpayers Division of Cebu Revenue District Offices (RDOs) of Revenue Region (RR) Nos. 7A-Quezon City, 8B-South NCR and 13-Cebu City
From November 2020	Large Taxpayers Division of Davao RDOs (with internet connection) under RR Nos. 4-Pampanga, 5-Caloocan City, 6-City of Manila, 7B-East NCR, 8A-Makati City and 19-Davao City.

 

To book a virtual meeting, taxpayers shall fill in the required details on the eAppoinment page, and if successful, will receive an email containing the Microsoft Teams invitation link for the virtual meeting.

The BIR eAppointment was adopted as an alternative solution to address restrictions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 39-2020, 19 October 2020, to prescribe the policies, guidelines and procedures in the processing of applications for the Voluntary Assessment and Payment Program (VAPP) pursuant to Revenue Regulation (RR) No. 21-2020.

Starting from the effectivity of RR No. 21-2020, the Large Taxpayers (LT) Audit Divisions (LTAD)/LT Divisions (LTDs)/Revenue District Offices (RDOs) shall create a Technical Working Group (TWG) to receive and process applications for availment of the VAPP.

In processing the VAPP applications, the following procedures shall be observed:

 

1.         A record shall be kept by the TWG for all applications received, whether filed personally or through a courier service, with the following information:

a.         Date Filed/Received

b.         Name of Taxpayer

c.         Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN)

d.         Alphanumeric Tax Code (ATC)

e.         Taxpayer Classification

f.          Date of Payment

g.         Amount Paid Per BIR Form 0622, (in case of additional payment per BIR Notice, indicate separately the said payment and the date)

h.         Name of Revenue Officer assigned to evaluate the application

i.          Status of the Application, whether approved or denied:

If approved - Certificate of Availment (CA) No. and Date Issued

If denied   -   Date of Denial letter and Date Issued

j.          For ONETT availments under Section 9.c – eCAR Number and Date Issued

Two separate records shall be maintained: (1) for VAPP availments under Section 9.a and 9.b, and (2) for applications under Section 9.c.

2.         On the next working day following the day of receipt of the VAPP application, the TWG shall provide the Chief of the LT Office/Revenue District Officer with a list of availments indicating the name of the taxpayer, TIN and ATC per BIR Form No. 2119 (VAPP Application Form) which will serve as the basis for the suspension of audit covered by the VAPP application.

3.         The TWG shall photocopy BIR Form No. 2119 and BIR Form No. 0622 (Payment Form) and distribute as follows:

1. Original – to be attached to the docket together with the attachments submitted by the taxpayer
2. Photocopy – to be forwarded to the concerned Data Processing Division or Large Taxpayers Document Processing and Quality Assurance Division, as the case may be, on or before the 5th day of the month following the month of receipt of availment for encoding in the Data Entry Module as soon as the same is made available.

4.         The TWG shall take following actions:

If the taxpayer has fully complied with the requirements/ conditions of the VAPP

Within 20 working days from receipt of the application, the TWG shall prepare a memorandum report recommending the approval of the application.

If there are deficiencies or defects

Within 15 working days from receipt of the application, the TWG will prepare and send a BIR Notice (Annex “C”) to the concerned taxpayer through the email address provided in BIR Form No. 2119. The taxpayer must rectify the defects and/or comply with/pay the deficiencies within 10 working days from receipt of the notification/email. Once the 10-day period has lapsed, the TWG shall prepare a memorandum report recommending the disapproval of the application in case the taxpayer failed to act/submit the required documents/pay the additional VAPP amount per BIR Notice.

1.         The TWG will then Transmit the docket on the VAPP application to the Assistant Chief, LT Office/Assistant Revenue District Officer (ARDO) for review.

2.         The Assistant Chief, LT Office/ARDO shall then review the VAPP application within five (5) working days from receipt of the docket. During the 5 working days, Assistant Chief LT Office/ARDO, the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer shall then act on the recommendation for approval/disapproval of the VAPP application

 

(a)       If approved, the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer shall cause the preparation of a CA, sign the CA and issue the same within three (3) working days from approval of the application.  All the applicable taxes availed of by the taxpayer shall be indicated on the CA.

(b)       In case of denial of the application due to failure of the taxpayer to act on the notification or in case of invalid availments, or falsified information, the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer shall issue a Denial Letter (DL) within 3 working days from disapproval of the application.

 

3.         For control purposes, all CA and DL shall be properly numbered, containing 12 alphanumeric characters. For approved availments under Sec. 9.c, a quadruplicate copy of the CA shall be prepared for the One-time Transactions (ONETT) Team.

4.         The TWG shall forward to the ONETT Team the docket containing the following:

(a)       BIR Form No. 2119;

(b)       BIR Form No. 0622;

(c)       Quadruplicate copy of CA; and

(d)       All the duly accomplished ONETT tax return(s) and corresponding documentary requirements.

Within 5 working days from receipt, the ONETT Team shall issue/release the eCAR to the concerned taxpayer. After release of the eCARs, the ONETT Team shall transmit the dockets to the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer.

5.         Based on the list of VAPP availments provided by the TWG, the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer shall suspend the conduct of the audit of the taxpayer whose availment is under evaluation. The TWG shall coordinate with the CAS regarding the approved/denied availments. The audit shall resume if the availment has been found invalid.

If the availment is determined to be valid and after the issuance of the CA, the CAS shall recommend to the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer to withdraw and cancel the issued Letter of Authority (LA), Tax Verification Notice (TVN), Notice for Informal Conference/Notice of Discrepancy for pending cases.

6.         The Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer shall submit the following reports, not later than the 5^th day following the close of the month:

Name of Report	Distribution of Report	Annex under RR No. 39-2020
Monthly Report on Availments of VAPP Filed	a. ACIR, AS , APD b. RD c. AD d. Office file copy	Annex D
Monthly Report on Certificates of Availment/Denial Letters Issued Pursuant to RR No. 21-2020	a. ACIR, AS, Attention: Chief,     APD b. ACIR, LTS/Concerned RD c. HREA, LTS/Chief, AD d. Office file cop	Annex E
Monthly Report on Cancelled LAs and TVNs due to Approved Availments of VAPP	a. ACIR, AS, Attention: Chief,     Assessment Performance     Monitoring Division (APMD) b. ACIR, LTS/Concerned RD c. Office file copy	Annex F

To facilitate the consolidation of reports, the signed monthly reports shall be scanned and submitted through email together with the softcopy prepared in Microsoft Excel Format to apd@bir.gov.ph or apmd@bir.gov.ph, as the case may be.   

1.         The Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer shall transmit all dockets on the approved/denied VAPP applications to the Office of the HREA, LTS/Chief, AD, not later than the 15^th day of the month following the month of issuance of the CA/DL for post review.

2.         The ACIR, LTS/Regional Director shall issue and sign the Authority to Cancel Assessment (ATCA) pursuant to Revenue Delegation Authority Order (RDAO) No. 6-2001 for FANs covered by approved VAPP availments with duly issued CAs within 10 working days from receipt of the Monthly Report on Certificates of Availment/Denial Letters issued from the Chief, LT Office/Revenue District Officer.

3.         After post review, the dockets of all applications for VAPP filed in the LT Audit Divisions in the National Office; Administrative and Human Resource Management Division of the Regional Office; or applications filed in the RDOs, whether approved or denied, shall be forwarded to the Records Management Division for safekeeping.

This Order shall take effect immediately.

 

Attached are the full texts of the issuances.

BIR Alert Spoofing

Revenue Memorandum Order No. 39-2020

BIR Update (Issue No. 16)