Request for Waiver of Penalty on Late Remittance of Withholding Taxes Due to Lack of Notice on New Payment System

May 28, 1998 BIR RULING NO. 078-98 8 (B)-000-00-078-98 Salesiana Publishers Incorporated A. Arnaiz Ave. cor. C. Roces Ave. Makati City Attention: Fr . Richard Varela , SDB Gentlemen : This refers to your letter dated May 14, 1997 requesting for waiver of the penalty on the late remittance of your withholding taxes which was due last May 13, 1997 considering that you were not properly notified about this new payment system of the Bureau and that the Bureau personnel as well cannot respond to your inquiries and clarificatory questions about the said new payment system. prLL It is represented that when your representative went to the Revenue District Office West Atrium in Makati City on May 13, 1997 to remit your withholding taxes, he was advised to pay thru the Enrollment Form he received in connection with the new payment system of the Bureau; that when you read the instructions written in the Bank Enrollment Form, it was stated therein that the tax payments may be done thru a bank debit or a Manager's check payable to the bank; that confusion arose when you purchased a Manager's Check from your bank to pay the withholding taxes due and the collecting bank (which to your understanding is the Development Bank of the Philippines) did not accept the check and again advised you to proceed to West Atrium for further instructions; that you have not yet settled the said withholding taxes amounting to P107,246.65 because you do not really know what to do because you are being asked to pay also the penalty of 25% and a compromise penalty of P15,000.00 which if computed, totals to P41,811.66 plus the principal of P149,058.31; that the said amount is quite a sum for you and that you are really unaware of the new payment system due to lack of information campaign; that even the Bureau employees could not respond to inquiries and clarifications you need regarding this new payment system due to inconsistency of implementation, an example of which is the type of payment, whether tax debit, cash or Manager's check. In reply, please be informed that the questioned Revenue Memorandum Order No. 19-97 was approved last April 22, 1997, the effectivity clause of which states that the said Order shall take effect immediately. Consequently, we conducted public hearings to properly guide the taxpayers on how to go about it but it is just unfortunate that you were not aware nor were you especially notified about it because we do not notify each taxpayer individually of our public hearings. At any rate, considering that you were really settling your withholding taxes on May 13, 1997 (in fact you already purchased a Manager's check from your bank to pay the said withholding taxes) except that there were lots of confusion in the implementation of the said Order during that time which prevented you from settling the same on time, we hereby grant your request for waiver of penalties and surcharges. We hope, however, that by this time, you are already well-informed about this new payment system and if you still have any further question, please feel free to write or call us again. cdlex Very truly yours, (SGD.) LIWAYWAY VINZONS-CHATO Commissioner of Internal Revenue