BIR’s Kim and Our Job Order Staff

Our office, a government agency had been hiring some staff under the job order scheme for the several years now (when I joined our office in 1999, we were already hiring job orders). This scheme was resorted to because there are tasks that need to be done however there are no regular items created to accommodate these staff as regular personnel. Job orders are plumbers, carpenters, painters and staff with similar expertise that we need specially for the maintenance of the properties that our office leasing out.

For the past several years, they were paid for the services that they rendered without our compulsarily withholding their income tax (5% of the monthly income). Under the new administration, automatic deduction of the withholding tax is imposed on our job orders. To implement it fully, the first requirement of course is for these job orders to get their Tax Identification Number.

 When the Accounting Department of our office issued this order, our Job Orders asked for permission to leave their post to get their TIN from the BIR.

 Job Order (JO1) and JO2 braved the heavy rains brought by the southwest monsoon and went directly to the Bureau of Internal Revenue main office. They were advised to proceed to the BIR Revenue Region 7 on Quezon Avenue fronting the former Delta Theatre. There, they were told that before they could be issued their TIN they should submit two of the following documents: birth certificate, NBI clearance and barangay clearance. They were so frustrated when they returned to the office without the BIR Tax Identification Number.

 Our staff assigned as carpenter in a Condominium in Paranaque who we shall refer to as JO3 asked permission and left his post to go the BIR office in Paranaque. From BIR Paranaque, he travelled to our main office here in Quezon City. I saw JO3 in front of our Accounting Department holding a BIR form. I asked him what is his problem. He showed me BIR FORM 1902 and told me that the BIR office in Paranaque told him to require his employer to fill up the portion of the form with the detailed information about his employer. It was already lunch time but I went out of my way to ask staff from our Accounting Department if they can fill up the information in the form. They told me that the BIR should have given JO3 BIR FORM 1901 for individuals without employers instead of the BIR FORM 1902. So, I advised JO3 to go back to the BIR Office and ask for BIR Form 1901.

 That afternoon, on my way home, I opened the car radio. It was BIR’s Kim being interviewed by DZMM announcers Anthony Taberna and Gerry Baja of Dos Por Dos. Kim was talking on her agency’s efforts on tax collection. She left an impression on us listeners how her agency is exerting all efforts at improving its tax collection efficiency.

The following week, I asked JO1 and JO2 about their efforts on getting BIR TIN. JO1 told me that he was able to get it by “pinalakad ko na lang po” (I had asked someone to fix it for me). He paid 200.00 to get his TIN. When I asked JO2 the same question, she answered the same way: “nagbayad na lang po ang mama ko ng 200 pesos, meron na po akong TIN sir.”

I asked them about JO3. Someone volunteered that JO3 would already have a TIN because he worked before in a janitorial services.

 The present administration could be very much aggressive in its tax collection efforts imagine even the small fishes like our Job Orders staff are being made to pay their taxes. But, my question is: why is the BIR making it too hard to issue Tax Identification Numbers to captive taxpayers?

 Just asking Madam KIM!