Then there are cases of individuals who have incorporated their business, such that the income is earned by the corporation, which then pays the appropriate corporate income taxes. Additionally, the dividend income the individual derives from the corporation is levied a final tax collected at source. There is no requirement that this be subject of an individual income tax filing.
“This is true as well for those whose income is passive, i.e., derived primarily from interest and dividends, which are imposed final taxes withheld at source. These are not captured in BIR’s top 500.
“These limitations in the data were not adequately explained by the BIR, either in their post or in public pronouncements. Thus rather than shaming tax evaders which may have been the object of the top 500 exercise, the issuance of such a list without qualification may have just provoked people to unfairly rail against those prominently known but absent from the list but who are already in BIR’s tax net and faithfully paying their taxes.â€
“One has to question the wisdom of continuing with such a list, which achieves no apparent public purpose, but just puts listed large individual taxpayers at risk from criminal elements, and unlisted law-abiding ones at risk of unfair shaming by the uninformed. If the BIR insists on continuing with this practice, the least it can do is to remove the amount of taxes paid in the interest of safety of the taxpayer and his family.
“For my part, I truly doubt that the large tax evaders and smugglers, who are completely outside the tax agencies’ data base as they do not issue receipts or file returns, can be shamed into paying proper taxes. The current leadership truly needs to break away from the past practice of simply hunting in the zoo and go after voracious wildlife — not an easy tax at all.â€
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