By KIERSNERR GERWIN TACADENA
LEADERS of the medical profession have made peace with their former adversary, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and joined forces in a campaign to get doctors to pay the right taxes.
BIR Commissioner Kim Henares and officers of the Philippine Medical Association (PMA) said they would start with an information campaign to make doctors more aware of their tax obligations.
Henares and PMA officers led by incoming president Dr. Minerva Calimag held a joint press conference to announce that talks are underway between the BIR and the medical profession to integrate good citizenship in the medical curriculum.
“In retrospect, our curriculum is steep on science of medicine. It lacks education in terms of physicians coping with the real world,” she said.
Just recently, the BIR earned the ire of doctors for its print advertisements urging people to pay their taxes right and to file their Income Tax Returns (ITRs) on April 15.
One advertisement showed a doctor riding the shoulders of a schoolteacher with the tagline, “When you don’t pay your taxes, you’re a burden to those who do.”
The advertisement cited the example of a doctor who paid only P7,424 in taxes from an annual income of a little over P1 million. In contrast, a schoolteacher who earned less with P852,169 annually paid income taxes of P221,694, or 30 times more the doctor.
Henares said the figures in the ads were based on actual ITRs filed.
Another BIR advertisement showed that out of 5,231 registered doctors in Cebu and Davao, 1,931 doctors declared income taxes of less than P27, 360 each, which is the starting income tax of a public school teacher.
Meanwhile, 2,457 doctors have no record of declaring their income tax dues in 2012, the BIR ad says.
The series of advertisements caused a stir among medical professionals, who called the ads “unfair,” “antagonistic,” and mere “generalizations.”
“If you do not pay the right taxes, it is normal for you to feel antagonistic towards the BIR,” Henares said, adding that the advertisements speak to people who do not pay taxes.
“I had nothing against doctors, what my job entails is requiring everyone to pay their tax, whoever they may be,” she said.
Calimag, on the other hand, wanted to put the issue behind her and start helping BIR with its tax campaign.
“I felt that the professionals should not have been treated that way, but that is already water under the bridge,” Calimag said. “We are looking forward to a better relationship with BIR.”
She said they would continue to work hand-in-hand with BIR to maintain the “good vibes” between the two offices.
In a statement distributed at the press conference, Dr. Priscilla Caguioa, president of Philippine College of Physicians, said she fully supports the BIR in its goal to promote tax compliance.
“It is the duty of the government to enforce the law, run after those who violate it and make sure the necessary remedies are adopted,” she said.
One of the plans of the BIR and medical leaders was to put up, in collaboration with BIR, a website or a computer accounting system where physicians could look for information regarding their taxes.
A computer accounting system, Henares said, will make transactions with the BIR electronically generated, from the filing of ITRs to the payment of taxes.
The system was suggested to outgoing PMA President Dr. Leo Olarte but it has yet to be done, she said.
Meanwhile, Calimag recalled the long-standing friendship between the BIR and PMA that helped them push the sin tax, which increased the taxes imposed on tobacco and alcoholic beverages.
In 2013, Caguioa said, sin taxes generated P91.6 billion that went to the Department of Health Budget, beefing up the DOH budget of P88 billion.
The BIR’s anti-tax evasion campaign is aimed at helping the agency meet its target collection of P1.456 trillion from taxes for 2014.
(The author is a University of the Philippines student writing for VERA Files as part of his internship.)
