The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is appealing to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to provide more leeway to businesses and taxpayers in the cities of Cebu and Mandaue. The appeal comes in light of BIR regulations extending the deadlines for tax filings and payments during the extended Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in the cities.
BIR extended the deadline in filing of tax returns to June 9, 14, 19, 24, and 29.
But the CCCI, in a position paper signed by president Felix Taguiam, asked the BIR to extend the deadline further. CCCI said the cities of Mandaue and Cebu were still under ECQ until May 31 and businesses will have a hard time meeting these deadlines.
Overburden taxpayers
CCCI said these deadlines will be “administratively inefficient and will overburden the taxpayers in Cebu and Mandaue.”
“For VAT and withholding transactions, taxpayers need to collate the supporting documents and figures as far back as February 2020, making it directly impossible to be finished within the deadline,” CCCI’s position paper stated.
They also pointed out that only a few businesses maintained a skeleton workforce with most of its employees working from home. Majority were closed due to the extended ECQ.
Backlogs
“With the lumped extended deadline, we cannot also discount the fact that RDOs in Cebu City and Mandaue, which may still be on skeleton workforce by that time, will be slumped with backlogs, thus, their inability to cater to urgent concerns of the taxpayers,” it added as the ECQ in the cities was lifted on June 1.
CCCI recommended a longer extension for Withholding Taxes (Creditable & Final), VAT and percentage tax returns covering the month or quarters ending in February to May and Annual Income Tax return for December 31, 2019. They asked that BIR extend it from June 14, 2020 to June 30, 2020.
CCCI also conveyed the request by the business community for government help in easing their burden caused by losses brought by the pandemic.
