BIR delays release of new tax stamps to January ’18

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)  (Photo: Bureau of Internal Revenue Philippines)

MANILA — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has postponed the release of new tax stamps to enhance its security features.

In a briefing, Finance Undersecretary Antonette Tionko said BIR pushed the date of release from November 2017 to January 2018 as it continues to fine-tune the security features to prevent fraud, among others.

“There are still some things we tweaked on security features,” she said.

BIR Assistant Commissioner Teresita Angeles said the manufacturer of the stamps, which she did not identify, is still testing the papers to be used.

“It has a different design and then there are some security features that will be enhanced,” she said.

The current stamp tax design has a picture of the slow-moving filter-feeding Butanding (whale shark), which can be found in the waters of Donsol, Sorsogon in Region 5.

The new design will bear the picture of the smallest known primate, the tarsier, found in the provinces of Bohol, Samar, and Leyte in the Visayas and in Mindanao.

Tionko said price of the new stamps would be higher by PHP0.2 than its current rate of PHP0.15.