REVENUE MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 32-2007 issued on May 2, 2007 circularizes the memorandum of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR) dated April 26, 2007 in relation to the new paradigm in meeting the collection target.

In view of the new paradigm mandated to the Bureau by the Secretary of Finance that the annual collection target must be met regardless of the realization of the underlying assumptions and that shortfalls in the projections must be compensated by collections from other sources, the following must be strictly observed:

1. All claims for exemptions, cash refunds and issuance of tax credit certificates (TCCs) must be strictly evaluated. Any doubt must be resolved in favor of the government.
   
               In claiming for exemptions, the delegated authority of the Regional Directors (RDs) to sign rulings that involve grants of tax exemptions shall now be approved and signed by the Assistant Commissioner–Legal Service (ACIR-LS). However, the Deputy Commissioner–Legal and Inspection Group (DCIR-LIG) shall be furnished with copies of the signed/issued rulings.
   
            The delegated authority of the ACIR-LS to sign rulings that involve grants of tax exemptions shall now be approved and signed by the DCIR-LIG. However, the office of the CIR shall be furnished with copies of the signed/issued rulings.
   
                 Claims for cash refunds/TCCs must be resolved expeditiously. All reports granting the claims involving the amount of P1 Million and above but not more than P10 Million must be cleared with the Deputy Commissioner–Operations Group (DCIR-OG) as the final approving official. All reports granting the claims involving an amount that is above P10 Million must be cleared with the CIR as final approving official. Reports of these claims need not be coursed through the Office of the DCIR-OG.
   
                The foregoing changes to the signatories to the rulings granting exemptions and grants of claims for cash refunds/TCCs shall be effective until such time that the CIR issues an order reverting the same to the original designated signatories.
2. All periods in the audit and assessment process must be scrupulously observed as prescribed in Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 11-2006. There should be no prolonged and unnecessary discussions and negotiations with the taxpayers. The process must be expeditiously brought to the Preliminary Assessment Notice (PAN)/Final Assessment Notice (FAN) stage.
3. All protests on PANs/FANs not containing substantial issues must be immediately acted upon and summarily denied without any prolonged or elaborate discussion. The process must be expeditiously brought to the payment stage, unless the taxpayer elects to go to court.
4. The load of each Revenue Officer-Assessment as fixed under RMO No. 11-2006 is increased from 20 to 30 cases at any one time.
5. Tax mapping operations (e.g. TCVD) and third-party information mining should be intensified to add new taxpayers to the rolls of taxpayers and enhance voluntary compliance. Progress reports required shall include a list of new taxpayers added per Revenue District Office (RDO).
6. Pay attention and give audit priority to those businesses which are apparently earning more revenues this year, such as but not limited to the following:
   1. Hotels and other tourism-related establishments, stockbrokers, lessors/lessees and sellers/dealers/buyers/brokers of real properties, mining companies, TV stations, advertising companies, recruitment agencies;
   2. Hospitals, clinics, medical and dental laboratories;
   3. Business agents and their clients reporting no payment returns;
   4. Professionals like doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc.;
   5. Government contractors;
   6. Duly identified top 10,000 private corporations under Revenue Regulations (RR) No.17-2003; and
   7. Taxpayers reporting exempt, net loss/no operations in their filed returns.
7. Close establishments violating the provisions of the Tax Code.
8. Expedite the generation of discrepancy report of sales and purchases reported by taxpayers through their Summary Lists of Sales and Purchases (SLSP).
9. Expedite the database registration clean-up and build-up.
10. Intensify collection of Accounts Receivable by expediting issuance of warrants of distraint and/or levy, and initiate an exhaustive audit of accounts that are closed in the Integrated Tax Systems (ITS).
11. Strictly monitor the returns of stop/non-filer taxpayers.
12. Intensify the stocktaking and surveillance activities on business establishments.
13. Intensify the development of fraud cases as prescribed under RMO No. 40-2006.
14. Intensify campaign for taxpayers to avail of the present programs of the BIR pertaining to the Improved Voluntary Assessment Program (IVAP) under RR No. 18-2006, and the one-time administrative abatement under RR No. 3-2007.
15. Initiate necessary proceedings against erring financial officers/tax practitioners pursuant to Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 31-2007.