Philippines lost P300 billion to ‘ghost receipts’ over past 20 years

[Lee]

Quote

 

The foregone revenues due to the proliferation of ghost receipts have reached more than P300 billion to date over the past 20 years, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has said.

“The investigations on those buying ghost or fake receipts are ongoing. We have filed cases already and in the coming weeks more cases will be filed against those buying ghost receipts,” BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. told reporters in a chance interview.

The BIR chief said that if the total amount of ghost receipts issued to date at P1.3 trillion will be divided by the 25% income tax and 12% value-added tax, the resulting amount would be P370 billion.

“With ghost receipts, if you compute the total purchases… calculate the VAT and then the income tax, that amount [P370 billion] came out as revenue loss,” Lumagui said.

The taxman’s chief said the problem with ghost receipts has been ongoing for almost 20 years “all across different sectors.”

He said over 100 “ghost corporations” had been created to sell ghost receipts.

Lumagui said ghost receipts are “receipts being issued by ‘ghost corporations’ to falsify transactions.

“Ghost corporations are registered with the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission). So these are true corporations but they do not have real products or services for their customers. They sell their receipts to legitimate businesses,” he said.

“Now, these receipts are used by buyers of ghost receipts to fabricate expenses and use as supporting evidence and their input VAT. The buyers’ purpose is to reduce their income tax and VAT through ghost receipts,” he added.

The BIR, in June, filed a criminal complaint against three companies for alleged tax evasion as the respondents bought fake or ghost receipts to reduce their tax liabilities.

In May, the taxman also filed criminal complaints against four ghost corporations that sold fake receipts to legitimate businesses, which in turn used them to evade taxes resulting in a revenue loss of P25.5 billion. —NB, GMA Integrated News

 

Philippines lost P300 billion to ‘ghost receipts’ over past 20 years (msn.com)

 

 

[Joey G]

Never heard of a ghost receipt in my life...   Is this like a Pearl Harbor moment... as in, after 20 years of investigating... the country as a whole is now surprised they lost P300B  in receipts (or tax revenue)?

Or worse... if they hadn't lost them, would be ahead of every other ASEAN country in GNP or some other economic measure?  

Or... is it just a slow news day and a headline to make people read the paper?

I do remember getting a receipt for darn near everything I paid more than peso for as far back as 1979... most were written on a rag tag piece of paper. No indication that a record was being made of it... more like a souvenir if anything. I did save several... a few bar fines included LOLOLLOLOL.,,, but I digress :)

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by Joey G
word fix

[Freebie]

2 hours ago, Joey G said:

Never heard of a ghost receipt in my life.

Its simple. A guy prints a book of  realistic looking receipts and sells them to a company.

Cigarette companies have a long history of using fake  or as termed here "ghost "receipts.

Increase your costs  ( thanks to fake receipts ) and therefor pay less tax. Simples.

[Kingpin]

Quote

  The government’s value added tax (VAT) gap is translating to uncollected revenues of around P546 billion every year, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) said.  Among other reasons, the BIR is blaming the proliferation of ghost receipts for this uncollected figure.  During its anniversary celebration, the BIR reported that only 60 percent of VAT revenues is being collected by the tax agency, with the gap estimated to be around 40 percent.  “One of the reasons why BIR cannot collect the right amount of taxes is because of ghost receipts,” the BIR said.  Based on the tax agency’s investigation, around P1.3 trillion in ghost receipts have been issued so far. This translates to P370 billion in lost VAT and income tax revenues.  “This has been going on for almost 20 years. If you see the figures, it continuously increases,” BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. said.

A lot of estimated numbers here. If they actually saw these ghost receipts, they could go after the merchants.

[fillipino_wannabe]

'The BIR chief said that if the total amount of ghost receipts issued to date at P1.3 trillion will be divided by the 25% income tax and 12% value-added tax, the resulting amount would be P370 billion.

“With ghost receipts, if you compute the total purchases… calculate the VAT and then the income tax, that amount [P370 billion] came out as revenue loss,” Lumagui said'

Maybe there's ghost receipts on top of ghost receipts because these figures don't add up lol

[hk blues]

48 minutes ago, fillipino_wannabe said:

'The BIR chief said that if the total amount of ghost receipts issued to date at P1.3 trillion will be divided by the 25% income tax and 12% value-added tax, the resulting amount would be P370 billion.

“With ghost receipts, if you compute the total purchases… calculate the VAT and then the income tax, that amount [P370 billion] came out as revenue loss,” Lumagui said'

Maybe there's ghost receipts on top of ghost receipts because these figures don't add up lol

The tax at 25% would be 325B and VAT would be 156B so a total of 481B? 

[JJReyes]

12 hours ago, Freebie said:

Cigarette companies have a long history of using fake  or as termed here "ghost "receipts.

At one time, manufacturers of cigarettes and liquor had to attach government revenue stamps on their product.  The stamps were supposed to be purchased from the Bureau of Internal Revenue.  The fake ones were so well printed that the BIR stamps, of inferior printing quality, were thought to be fake.  

[JJReyes]

How come the article does not mention about agents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue selling ghost receipts to corporations?