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Philippines: Tax center expands online operations
The National Tax Research Center (NTRC) is further developing the functions of its existing online incentives application portal for investors to allow the electronic submission in the future of reports, the Department of Finance (DoF) said.
The DoF said the NTRCm in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd, disclosed the online portal — the Fiscal Incentives Registration and Monitoring System (FIRMS) — is currently used by potential investors to submit their applications for incentives in any of the investment promotion agencies (IPAs).
Under Republic Act (RA) 11534 or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (Create) Law, the NTRC serves as the secretariat of the reconstituted Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) and is tasked to craft the application forms of business enterprises who wish to avail of tax incentives.
Dominguez chairs the reconstituted FIRB with Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez as co-chairman.
Dominguez earlier ordered all agencies attached to the DoF to implement their respective digital transformation programs long before the pandemic.
The NTRC launched the FIRMS on June 14, 2021 to comply with the provisions of the Create Law.
The FIRMS will be used by the IPAs and the FIRB to review, approve or reject, and monitor activities/projects.
The NTRC said that in the future, FIRMS will be able to generate the electronic Certificate of Registration (COR) and Certificate of Entitlement to Tax Incentives (CETI) of approved investments.
The NTRC is encouraging existing businesses already receiving tax incentives from the government to also create their accounts in FIRMS.
It will soon allow business enterprises to electronically submit their reports on the fiscal incentives they have received, in compliance with the provisions of Create, the NTRC said.
The NTRC said the electronic submissions will enable the government to better monitor, review and analyze the economic impact of tax incentives.
Under Create, the FIRB shall conduct an impact evaluation, such as a cost-benefit analysis, on investment incentives to determine the impact of such incentives on the Philippine economy.
The Create law provides for a three-tiered framework in the grant of incentives to qualified industries under the government’s Strategic Investment Priority Plan (SIPP), which aims to attract high-value, labor-intensive investments that will create more jobs and further improve the Philippines’ competitiveness in the global market.
The Board of Investments in coordination with the FIRB, the IPAs, and other stakeholders shall formulate the SIPP, which will be submitted to the President for approval.
Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/12/28/business/top-business/tax-center-expands-online-operations/1827405