Tax payments collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue through electronic channels jumped 92 percent in 2019 to P1.2 billion from P626.35 million a year ago.
The BIR said in a report to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III electronic tax payments last year reached 446,753 transactions, up by 60 percent from 278,602 transactions done through e-channels in 2018.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa said the electronic payments were done through the Union Bank Online Tax Payment Facility using automated teller machines or debit cards, the PayMaya smartphone app and the PESONet fund transfer service.
Guballa said that for 2020, BIR aimed to further simplify its paper application forms and reduce processing times, the number of documentary requirements and signatories for taxpayers to enhance the bureau’s delivery of frontline services and help improve the ease of doing business.
Tax payments processed online increased in 2019 when the BIR, on Aug. 15, 2019, launched PESONet, an electronic funds transfer service which enabled the taxpayers to conveniently pay their taxes anytime and anywhere.