Taxation 101 - Part 4

This is probably the last of my taxation series. I went to BIR Manila last March 5 to get my certificate of registration and other tax documents. I began the registration process last February 19. Normally, it would only take a week for the processing to be completed, but we ran into some issues.

Due to some misunderstanding, instead of applying for a Percentage Tax Type, we initially applied for a VAT Tax Type, which means I'll be paying 12% of my monthly pay instead of 3% every month.

And because I didn't want to be late for the February 20 deadline, I immediately paid the 12% for the month of January. The following day, I found out that I was supposed to pay only 3%.

Ate Weng offered to return to BIR to have my documents fixed, including a late registration for the last quarter of 2007, and to ask if there is a way to get my incorrect payment back.

She had my documents fixed, but the BIR officer is no longer interested for the late registration for 2007. When Ate Weng insisted that we wanted to pay for our taxes for the last quarter of 2007, the officer told her something like "kung marami talaga kayong pera, ibigay niyo na lang sa amin" (if you really have lots of money, just give it to us.)

We decided not to pursue the taxes for 2007 since the BIR officer himself is not even interested in it. As for my incorrect payment (12%), we learned that there's no way to get it back or even credit it for next month's payment. It turned out that the "system" only takes and doesn't bother to give anything back. Anyhow, I just think of that 12% as my tax payment for the last quarter of 2007.

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Going back, I went to the BIR officer who processed my registration. To my disappointment, before I could get the certificate, I still need to do a couple of things. So what the hell was that 1 week processing time for?

1st step was to obtain a documentary stamp from the "collection" unit located at the far end of the office. The tiny stamp, similar to a postage stamp, officially costs P100, however the "collector", Normita Azurin, asked for P115 from me. P15 maybe not that much, but corruption is still corruption.

2nd step was to proceed to room #3 to have the stamp and receipt attached to the certificate, then have it signed by the office-in-charge in that department. The officer in this room was very different from all the other BIR employees. She's soft-spoken, polite and shows genuine concern to people.

3rd step was to give the documents to room #2 for some date stamps, a couple more signatures, and finally a dry seal. I had to wait for around 15 minutes.

4th and last step was to give the stamped and signed documents to the releasing section, where it will be stamped and signed for the last time, and finally given to me together with a tax certificate which we would normally find in establishments.

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My recent encounters have given me first hand experience with taxation, red tape and corruption. Hopefully, I wouldn't have to go back to that place and transact with those people anytime soon.

To end this post and this series, I would like to share some photos which I took from the BIR office...

This is a typical ceiling that you would see in almost all places in the BIR building. The building is really old and seems to be poorly maintained as what these ceilings suggest.

This is the men's discomfort room in one of the floors. The other discomfort rooms on the other floors do not exactly look like this but feels the same.

I wanted to take a picture of the office itself but I never had the chance to do so. But if you could just imagine, a big office with lots of tables, each table with lots of papers stacked and lying around, some employees not in their proper uniform, some playing solitaire during working, disorganized and unfriendly...