Rantings and Ravings

Since the hard launching of the Integrated Tax System in our district, a streamlining of internal revenue processes was in placed, thereby making daily transactions in the office seem sleek and trouble-free. The bottleneck often faced by our taxpayers in acquiring taxpayers identification numbers (TIN) and the risk of losing the same since they were given TIN cards for safekeeping, ran low since even this was computer-generated and manually encoded in our database. However, here is the catch, the taxpayers TIN is considered as the most important component in completing every transaction made with the BIR. Aside from the fact that holding two or more TIN is criminally sanctioned under our law, the taxpayers simply have to rely on the "frailty of the human mind" in remembering their TIN in case the cards are lost or misplaced.

Just like in every effort toward modernization, it is not without any drawback. Our system entirely depends on our internet service provider (ISP). If the latter bugs down or experiences technical troubles, our whole operations suffer as well. The national office requested our ISP to appropriate faster download speed to prevent network clogging while granting easy access to the internet. The latter privilege was curtailed to a certain extent to prevent abuse of the internet. Since last week, the district was bombarded by complaints from taxpayers who could not acquire TIN because the system was offline. As mentioned, without the TIN, one-time taxpayers could not pay their taxes in our Authorized Agent Bank (AAB) where the same is required. They will have to wait until the system goes online before they can have their TIN verified and make the necessary payments. What if he was transacting business the tax of which expires on the same day? Logically, he will be charged with interest for every day he was in default in addition to the penalty that will be imposed for late filing and compromise penalty. However, we from the BIR are not some ruthless animals who would take advantage of a bigger collection at the expense of our taxpayers. This problem can be remedied on a condition that the Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR) would not be issued unless the required application for TIN has been made and/or filed and the payment has been provisionally received by a collection agent before whom the taxpayer would appear to present his TIN. So much for that.

Moving forward, the biometrics has remained and will undoubtedly remain as the hottest issue in the district for the coming years, unless someone bold enough will annihilate this thing pronto in the same way Tom Cruise did in his movie Mission Impossible. Armed with the right gadget, I would be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice! Since my coming late to the office on that day when it took effect, I have been early in going to the office-- too early that I did not even care if I had fixed my hair or ironed my clothes for the sake of undoing the wrong impression I had made. I was almost successful at it, had it not for my negligence and sheer lack of foresight of not being able to punch out in the afternoon on five separate occasions, thereby making me absent for that whole five days. I was asked to justify this failure through a memorandum addressed to our chief of office who to my disappointment, allowed only two of the five days I was applying for. I manifested that said failure was an honest-to-goodness mistake and was done without malicious intent, for I could not possibly be absent on the dates where I was the ONETT officer and I have witnesses who could back me up. The said explanation, however, was to no avail. Heartless. What is even worse, those who were also asked to explain their demeanor but made up lies to exonerate themselves were allowed by our chief that goes to show that it is better to lie and lie boldly than tell the truth. That made me remember one lesson I have learned under Mr. Españo’s Religious Studies class back in Ateneo when he said, “Sometimes in life when you do good, you suffer.”

I hope that this whole experience would leave an indelible imprint in my mind of the kind of leader I would become--a leader not by position or rank but a leader whom people follow and emulate. For a leader who could not transcend mere position, rank, or status, and acts only for namesake without command, respect and emulation, is like a person taking a stroll in the park without anyone following him.

“He who thinketh he leadeth and hath no one following him is only taking a walk.”