Many delinquent POGOs now settling tax debts: BIR

Remedios Advincula Jr., BIR chief revenue officer and strike team head, said many POGOs have already settled their tax liabilities, amid government’s crackdown on tax-delinquent offshore gaming operators. (File photo by Ramon FVelasquez – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0)

MANILA — Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) are now heeding President Rodrigo Duterte’s directive for them to pay the correct amount of taxes to the government, the Bureau of Internal Revenue said on Wednesday.

Remedios Advincula Jr., BIR chief revenue officer and strike team head, said many POGOs have already settled their tax liabilities, amid government’s crackdown on tax-delinquent offshore gaming operators.

He, however, was not privy to the exact number of POGOs that already complied with the President’s order.

“They are complying…. ‘Yung mga ibang na-notify na, pumupunta na sa opisina (Those who have been notified are going to the office to pay the right taxes,” Advincula told Palace reporters in a weekly economic briefing.

“Actually, ‘yung iba nagbayad na naka-comply na kaya medyo maganda ang collection namin diyan sa POGO (Some have already complied and paid their taxes so our tax collections from POGOs improved,” he added.

Duterte on Nov. 23, 2019 imposed a three-day deadline for delinquent POGOs to settle their tax debts.

Advincula said there are still delinquent online gaming operations and service operators that have yet to pay their tax liabilities.

“There are some also, naka-calendar na pwedeng i-operate pa (we are scheduled to have an operation against delinquent POGOs). Hindi pa namin pwedeng i-divulge dito (We cannot divulge it yet here). So we’re doing our best,” the BIR official said.

On Sunday, the Finance department announced that the government collected a total of PHP6.42 billion in taxes from POGOs and their service providers in 2019, following the intensified crackdown on errant POGOs.

The tax collection last year increased to PHP4.04 billion, or 169 percent, compared to the PHP2.38 billion posted in 2018.

Around PHP5.14 billion of the total PHP6.42 billion in taxes collected by BIR from POGOs came from withholding taxes, PHP644.07 million from income taxes, PHP91.13 million from value added tax and percentage tax collections, PHP81.11 million from documentary stamp taxes, and PHP469.13 million from other taxes.

Some 170 notices were issued to erring offshore gaming operators and service providers in 2019, in an effort to collect PHP27.35 billion in unpaid tax liabilities from tax-delinquent POGOs.

Last year, the BIR temporarily stopped the operations of at least four firms operating as POGO service providers.

To date, there are 60 POGOs that secured license to operate from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).

A moratorium on new licenses for POGOs has been imposed by Pagcor, until issues besetting the operations of online gaming are addressed.

The BIR is currently monitoring 218 POGO service providers in the country that employ around 108,914 foreign workers.