A few days Last week, an advertisement by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) that showed a (presumably) Doctor on top of the shoulders of a Teacher with the caption, “When you don’t pay your taxes, you’re a burden to those who do.”
It created a lot of controversy and as expected a lot of doctors criticized the said ad.
Should they take offense? Here is an article written by Solita Collas-Monsod (popularly known as Mareng Winnie) in the Philippine Daily Inquirer (published March 8, 2014):
“It is not as if this is the first time we are told that a great number of professionals (e.g., lawyers, accountants, doctors), and the rest of their self-employed, “own-account” brethren, don’t seem to be paying their fair share of taxes. One certainly remembers that P-Noy made a point of it in his State of the Nation Address. It’s been written about at any time these past 20 years, including by yours truly, who also brought it out in any number of speeches in front of professional organizations.
So why has such offense been taken? What’s with the onion-skinned reaction on the part of the Philippine Medical Association? Are the accountants and the lawyers (the lawyers have not as yet been featured, and if the ad campaign of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Department of Finance does not include them soon, there will be hell to pay) going to say that they, too, are being unfairly treated?
Only consider: Of the 1.7 million professionals registered with the Professional Regulation Commission, less than a quarter—about 400,000—are registered taxpayers. That leaves 1.3 million who are not paying taxes. Surely it is not a leap of logic to conclude that these will include doctors, lawyers, and accountants, among others?
Then there are the studies of the DOF showing that (and I brought this out 12 years ago, courtesy of Nene Guevara) that for every P10 collected from a fixed-income earner, P1 is collected from a professional. That’s how bad it is. Surely doctors, lawyers, and accountants are also involved here.”
You can read the full article here.
So, what’s your take on this? Please share your thoughts. Thanks!
