Massive online tax filing signals greater financial inclusion

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has reported that 1.43 million or 99.5 percent of all the income tax returns filed (ITRs) during the last tax filing season were filed online. In a report to the Secretary of Finance, the BIR said that only 7,139 returns were filed manually.

This is clearly a giant leap forward in the government’s efforts to ramp up digitalization in revenue collection. Despite the imposition of highly restrictive quarantine measures barely a month before the deadline for tax filing last year, 1.31 million or 90 percent were filed online. This was a 10 percent increase over the 2018 figure of 1.28 million e-ITRs or 80.4 percent of total returns filed.

Electronic filing of income tax returns is more convenient for the public, thereby making tax compliance easier. In the manual filing scenario, taxpayers had to endure long queues and many hours of waiting before their returns could be received. The pandemic has brought on a more auspicious alternative as mass gatherings have been prohibited and physical distancing has been imposed.