Guidelines in the Preparation of the BIR Weekender Briefs

February 13, 2020 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 009-20 SUBJECT : Guidelines in the Preparation of the BIR Weekender Briefs TO : All Revenue Officials and Employees and Others Concerned I. BACKGROUND Since 2010, the BIR Weekender Briefs serves as an additional source of information for revenuers regarding developments in tax administration, particularly events in the National Office and regional/district offices. Over the years, however, the number of entries for publication in the BIR Weekender Briefs submitted weekly to the Internal Communication Division has been increasing. This poses a challenge in the weekly preparation and finalization of the said newsletter as well as in the sending of the same via e-mail to all internal users in view of its increasing file size. To facilitate the preparation and release of the BIR Weekender Briefs, there is a need to rationalize the entries that will be considered for inclusion/publication therein by giving more emphasis for events that are part of the Bureau's annual priority plans and programs. II. OBJECTIVE This Order is being issued to prescribe the guidelines in the preparation of the BIR Weekender Briefs by specifying, among others, the entries that will be retained/published in the said newsletter as well as the entries that will be dropped (or no longer be published) in the newsletter. III. GUIDELINES A. Entries to be Retained/Published 1. Filing of Run After Tax Evaders (RATE) cases 2. Special Events organized by the National Office ( i.e. , National Tax Campaign Kick-off, BIR Anniversary celebration, project launch, command conference, public hearings, etc.) 3. "Oplan Kandado" operations 4. Tax Compliance Verification Drives 5. Other tax enforcement activities like post-evaluation of CRM/POS, surveillance, inventory/stocktaking 6. Revision of Zonal Values (public hearings and meetings with external members) 7. Tax Information Drives 8. Interaction with BIR Partners ( i.e. , MOA signing, signing of Deed of Donation, request for assistance), except courtesy calls 9. Capability Enhancements (conduct of trainings for revenue personnel) 10. Recognition Program (for Top Performers and retiring officials) 11. GAD Activities 12. Special Events organized/conducted in the region/district offices, namely: Turnover Ceremonies, annual filing of ITRs, BIR Anniversary celebration, inauguration of new office building and Outreach Activities B. Entries to be Dropped 1. Regular meetings (staff conferences, BAC meetings, REB deliberations, etc.), except those attended by MANCOM 2. Courtesy calls 3. Mere attendance in external events that are not directly related to tax administration 4. Routine activities ( i.e. , Employee Recruitment, oath-taking of new employees and newly-promoted employees, disposal of obsolete properties, etc.) 5. Participation in parades and other LGU-led events/celebrations 6. Other events like 1st Friday Mass, Women's Month celebration, Team Buildings, etc. C. Preparation of Photo Captions 1. Use Word or Powerpoint when preparing photo captions. Do not send photo captions in pdf/jpeg (as part of photos) or other uneditable format. 2. Do not type photo captions in uppercase/capital letters. Use sentence case. 3. Observe proper spacing between words. Do not put unnecessary spaces. 4. Use regular font (times new roman). Do not use bold font. 5. Indicate in the photo caption the name of the office and date of event. D. Sending of Photos 1. Send only 2 to 4 "action" photos per entry to facilitate the preparation of layout and for better quality of photos in the newsletter. 2. Avoid sending photo collage. 3. Send photo in jpeg file or included in Word/Powerpoint file, together with the caption. 4. In case of use of Word file, put all related photos per entry in one Word file and not in separate Word files. 5. For entries containing tax enforcement activities ( i.e. , filing of RATE case, "Oplan Kandado" Operations, tax mapping activities, etc.), send at least three (3) "action" photos in high resolution, unedited jpeg files because these photos shall be published not only in the BIR newsletter, but also in the photo slider portion (at the home page) of the BIR Website. E. Timeline for Submission of Entries In order for entries to be included in the week's layout of the BIR Weekender Briefs, the same should be received by the Internal Communications Division via e-mail at [emailprotected] not later than Thursday (5:00 PM) . In case of holidays, the cutoff day shall be the day before the last working day of the week ( e.g. , cutoff day is Wednesday if Friday has been declared a holiday). Major events that happened outside the cutoff period (Friday of last week to Thursday of current week), including entries with no date, will not be included in the week's issue of the BIR Weekender Briefs but will be considered for publication in the BIR Monitor . As much as possible, entries should be sent/submitted a day after the conduct of the event to avoid the accumulation of entries that makes sending/receiving via e-mail difficult. For the information and strict compliance of all concerned revenue officials and employees. (SGD.) CAESAR R. DULAY Commissioner of Internal Revenue