BIR: Few lawyers, CPAs in top taxpayers list

MANILA, Philippines – Doctors, lawyers, accountants – they are the first who come to mind when talking about high-earning professionals. 

But sadly, many of them aren’t paying the right amount of taxes, said the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which has been zeroing in on professionals, especially the self-employed ones, in its fight against tax evasion.

In its latest tax campaign ad, BIR pointed out that of 3.2 million people belonging in 50 registered professions, less than a hundred made it to the Top 500 Individual Taxpayers List for 2012.

BIR failed to note, however, that the professionals who made it to BIR’s list are also businessmen.

BIR said of 65,398 lawyers registered with the Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC) as of 2011, 19 were top taxpayers in 2012.

Corporate lawyer and PAL Holdings Inc. company secretary Estelito Mendoza led the lawyers group, with P56.59 million tax paid. He ranked third on the BIR list.

Following Mendoza was GMA Network Inc. chairman and CEO Felipe Gozon, who ranked 41st on the BIR list, with P20.91 million tax paid.

Among 176,048 doctors and dentists, 2 were on the BIR list – Splash Corporation chairman and CEO Rolando Hortaleza (P12.32 million) and Levi Labra of Procter & Gamble (P9.38 million).

Meanwhile, 8 out of 145,209 certified public accountants registered with PRC were included in the list. The 8 were led by Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation president and CEO Lorenzo Tan, with P33.16 million; TVI Resource Development president Eugene Mateo, with P13.10 million; and businessman Roberto Ongpin, with P7.42 million.

Check out this graphic for the names of the other professionals who paid the highest amount of income taxes last year. 

– Rappler.com