BIR to gold traders: Pay taxes in advance

MANILA, Philippines – The BIR has issued new guidelines on transactions involving gold and non-publicly traded stocks.

Under RR No. 5-2013, the BIR required sellers of jewelry, gold and other metallic minerals to pay taxes in advance.

Revenue Collection Officers (RCO) from the agency’s Revenue District Office (RDO) will have jurisdiction depending on the place where the sale occurred. The BIR will issue a revenue official receipt (ROR) once the taxes have been paid. The agency’s Special Investigation Division and its RCOs will enforce the guidelines under RR No. 5-2013.

In April 2012, the agency imposed excise taxes, value-added taxes and income taxes on the sale of gold and other metallic minerals through RR No. 6-2012. The taxes will be in effect even when gold is sold to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).

The new guidelines are meant to curb untaxed sales of gold to non-BSP buyers. The agency said that such gold sales are often completed in expositions advertised in national newspapers.

The BIR said that owners and operators of venues where sellers and buyers meet for gold transactions are required to inform RDOs. The new directive also ordered venue operators to provide information on foreigners and overseas corporations. These information include the names, nationalities, passport numbers and intended length of stay in the venues of buyers and sellers.   

The agency also issued RR. No. 6-2013, which amends the rules covering the sale, barter, exchange of shares in unlisted local companies. The new directive requires the assessment of unlisted shares for capital gains tax purposes. The value of the shares will be determined through the BIR’s adjusted net asset method.

“These Revenue Regulations are important because they allow the BIR to account for a wider scope of economic activity in the country. With these issuances, the government is more empowered to collect the taxes due from transactions that used to be hard to spot,” said Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima in a press release on Tuesday, April 23.

The BIR has set a tax collection target of P1.253 trillion in 2013. The agency missed its target of P267 billion during the 1st quarter. – Rappler.com