On March 26, 2014, the Association of Certified Public Accountants in Commerce & Industry held its 2nd General Membership Meeting and Seminar, with the current year’s theme: #moving forward and with huge focus on tax updates and Income Tax Return filing, at the Bahia Room of the Hotel Intercontinental Manila in Makati City.
The GMM kicked off with the Luncheon Meeting topic, “Philippines in the Limelight: Can We Capitalize?” ably discussed by Ms. Cherrylin M. Javier, Assurance Partner of Isla Lipana & Co. Ms. Javier shared with the participants the results of and the insights derived from the Annual Global CEO Survey released in March 2014. According to the survey, CEOs were more confident that the global economy would improve over the next 12 months (44% in 2014 vs. 18% in 2013); also, the survey unveiled what worries the CEOs the most or the global trends that would transform their respective businesses over the next five years:
- technological advances (81%)
- demographic shifts (60%)
- shift in global economic power (54%) and
- climate change and resource scarcity (46%)
Ms. Javier also discussed the various Philippine key indicators such as the OFW remittances $22.8Billion; total workforce, 41Million; literacy rate, 95.40%; unemployment rate, 7.5%; SMS per day, 2Billion; Filipinos with cell phones, 112%, etc. She presented the top ten cities of the country in terms of overall competitiveness (lead by Cagayan de Oro), government efficiency (with Iloilo as the highest-ranked) and infrastructure (excelled by Naga City). She was pleased to inform the members that the Philippines has improved a lot in its global competitiveness performance notably in the aspects of ease of doing business, transparency/international corruption perception, economic freedom and travel and tourism. The Philippines also ranked # 1 as the most improved economy in the world, followed by Ukraine at 2nd place and Rwanda, Brunei and Russia tied at 3rd place.
After learning those positive key indicators and our country’s impressive performance vis-a-vis the world, the answer is--- Yes! The Philippines can capitalize.
The 2nd GMM’s technical sessions featured an impressive line up of hot topics in taxation. The first lecture was delivered by Atty. Carolina A. Racelis, Principal,Tax Services of Sycip Gorres Velayo & Co. Her topics about tax updates included the following salient points:
- Proper withholding for deductibility of expense (RR 12- 2013 as clarified by RMC 63-2103) – Under this RR, payments are not deductible expense if tax is not properly withheld, even if withholding tax is paid during the tax audit/investigation;
- Preservation of books of accounts ( RR 17-2013) – This regulation required all taxpayers to preserve their books of accounts including subsidiary books and other accounting records for a period of 10 years.
- Submission of alphalist of employees/payees (RR 1-2014; RMC 5-2014) – This RR directs submission of alphabetical lists containing less than ten (10) employees by withholding agents every year thru the applicable modes as prescribed under RR 1-2014 (manual submission shall no longer be allowed).
- Disclosure of supplemental information (RMC 9-2014)
- Tax Exemption Certificate or ruling (RMC 8-2014)- This RMC obliges tax agents to require tax-exempt entities to provide a copy of their exemption certificate or ruling, and such certificate or ruling must be valid, current and subsisting.
- Validity of Invoices and Official Receipts (RR 18-2012 and RMC 44-2013 as clarified by RMC 52-2013)
In the last technical session, Ms. Lina P. Figueroa, Principal, Tax Advisory and Compliance Division of Punongbayan & Araullo, gave to the ACPACI members and guests some important “Income Tax Reminders” so they’d have a hassle-free and stress-free tax season. She advised them to:
- File on time
- Follow the filing and payment guidelines
- Know the new ITR
- Compute tax correctly
- Prepare for BIR audit
- Amend the return to correct errors.
Speaking of the new ITR, Ms. Figueroa presented to the attendees the different ITR forms to be used starting the taxable year December 31, 2013. The new forms are: BIR Form 1700 – for individuals earning purely compensation income; BIR FORM 1701 – For self-employed individuals, estates and trusts; BIR FORM 1702-RT – for corporation, partnership and other non-individual tax payers subject only to REGULAR income tax rate; BIR FORM 1702- EX – for corporation, partnership, and other non-individual taxpayers EXEMPT under the tax code and BIR FORM 1702- MX – for corporation, partnership, and other non-individual with MIXED income subject to multiple income tax rates or with income subject to special/ preferential rate.
She also discussed, among others, the new features of the ITR forms like the bar code which indentifies the return and the pagination; the ITR form can be read by an Optical Character Reader for easy scanning, the printing specs and paper (A4 instead of legal size paper) and the elimination of the centavos, the figures in the new ITR are rounded up.
The GMM also featured the induction of new ACPACI members by ACPACI President Ms. Ning B. Santos and her privilege speech during the President’s Time. The program was hosted by Ms. Edna L. Constantino and Ms. Gregoria A. Guillermo, ACPACI Directors.