Monitoring of Letters of Authority

January 18, 1989 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 04-89 SUBJECT : Monitoring of Letters of Authority TO : All Internal Revenue Officers and Others Concerned Purpose. This Revenue Memorandum Order is promulgated (1) to facilitate the monitoring of letters of authority (LAs) issued by the various audit units in the National and Regional Offices; (2) to prevent duplicity or multiplicity of issuance of letters of authority issued by different audit units and/or revenue enforcement officers to the same taxpayer for the same taxable period for the same kind of tax; (3) to forestall the assignment of a tax case to a revenue enforcement officer for investigation who has audited the same taxpayer for the taxable year immediately preceding the taxable period under audit (whether the return under audit is monthly, quarterly or annual); and, (4) to monitor the workload of each revenue enforcement officer. List and/or reports required. 1. List of LAs issued All heads of audit and/or investigation units/offices/divisions shall prepare a list of letters of authority issued in a form prescribed in Annex "A" hereof. The list shall be prepared in triplicate to be distributed as follows: (a) Original - to be forwarded to the Assistant Commissioner (Planning and Research) Attention: Chief, Management Information and Data Control Systems Division; (b) Duplicate - to the Assistant Commissioner concerned (for National Office cases) or the Regional Director concerned (for regional cases); and, (c) Triplicate - to be retained by the head of audit and/or investigation units/offices/divisions who prepared the list. 2. Report of LA Forms requisitioned . 2.1 The Chief, Accountable Forms Division, shall submit to the Chief, Management Information and Data Control Systems Division, a report of letters of authority requisitioned by and issued to the Assistant Commissioner to Regional Directors and other heads of investigation units during 1987 and subsequent years. This report shall indicate the block of serial numbers of LAs issued to each requisitioning officer and date of delivery. 2.2 The Assistant Commissioner and the Regional Director concerned shall likewise submit a report of LAs distributed to chiefs of audit or investigating divisions, revenue district offices, assessment and Special Investigation Branch, and other audit units, indicating the same information required in the preceding paragraph. Time for submission of list/reports . The aforesaid list of LAs issued shall be prepared daily by Metro Manila revenue regions, revenue district offices, National Office Audit divisions, and other special investigating offices; and weekly by revenue offices concerned outside Metro Manila. These shall be forwarded to the Chief, Management Information and Data Control System Division, not later than the following day or Wednesday of the immediately following week, as the case may be. Copies of all LAs issued must accompany the lists to be submitted. The report of LA forms requisitioned shall be prepared on a weekly basis and shall be forwarded to the Chief, Management Information and Data Control System not later than Wednesday of the immediately following week. Processing of list/reports. 1. The Chief, Management Information and Data Control Division, shall classify the lists of LAs issued by Revenue District Offices and/or investigation units/office/division and shall computerize the same for the purpose of: (a) generating data indicating the workload and assignment of tax cases of each revenue enforcement officer and (b) preventing duplicity or multiplicity of issuance of letters of authority. 2. The Assistant Commissioner, (Planning and Research) shall furnish a copy of the printout of LAs issued to the Commissioner and the Assistant Commissioner (Assessment) daily for revenue offices in Metro Manila and weekly for revenue offices outside Metro Manila. Resumption of Issuance of LAs for 1987 and prior years . Letters of Authority may now be issued by the various audit units to investigate internal revenue tax liabilities for calendar year 1987 or fiscal year ended as of June 30, 1988, and prior years, provided the duplicate of the Internal revenue tax return is attached to the Letter of Authority. No LA shall be approved without the duplicate tax return attached to it. Audit and investigation of tax liabilities for calendar year 1988 and all fiscal years beginning July 1, 1987 remains suspended until further order. Orders for tax audit examination purposes other than thru the use of LAs, strictly prohibited . The practice of issuing mission orders or any other similar order, for the purpose of tax audit examination and assessment of internal revenue taxes are hereby strictly prohibited. casia This paragraph, however, excludes orders for the purpose of surveillance, data gathering or for any similar purposes, and office audit cases. Effectivity. This Revenue Memorandum Order shall take effect immediately. (SGD.) JOSE U. ONG Commissioner of Internal Revenue