Closing of accounts receivable in amounts of not more than P20,000 in Regional and District Offices

September 10, 1973 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 33-73 SUBJECT : Closing of accounts receivable in amounts of not more than P20,000 in Regional and District Offices TO : All Regional Directors, Chiefs of Branches, Revenue District Officers, Collection Agents and Others Concerned In order to finally clean up all the accounts receivable In Regional and District Offices and to enable the Data Processing Center to prepare a list of clean collectibles without including therein cases paid, closed or those which should not be collected anymore, the following procedure for the closing of accounts receivable in Regional and District Offices is hereby promulgated for compliance by all concerned: I. Chief, Collection Branch A. He shall prepare a summary list of all delinquent accounts within the jurisdiction of the Regional Office and Revenue District Offices for purposes of the issuance of Warrant of Distraint and Levy (WDL) and compile the dockets corresponding to the said accounts. cd B. The dockets should be reviewed to determine whether those with assessments of P10,000 or more have been microfilmed and if any docket has not been microfilmed, it should be forwarded to the Records Division in the National Office for microfilming. C. The dockets together with the list shall then be turned over to the Regional Review Committee in the Regional Office. II. Regional Review Committee A. For the purpose of reviewing the dockets of delinquent accounts, a review committee is hereby created in the Regional Office composed of the following: Assistant Regional Director Chairman Chief, Assessment Branch Member Chief, Legal Branch Member Chief, Collection Branch Member B. Duties of the Review Committee: 1. It shall go over the dockets received from the Collection Branch to determine whether the assessments can stand scrutiny in court. Before reviewing the dockets, it shall, however, first determine whether the dockets with assessments of P10,000 or more have been microfilmed and if not, it be returned to the Collection Branch for appropriate action. 2. The dockets of those assessments which can stand scrutiny in court shall be returned to the Collection Branch for preparation of WDL, in case the amount involved is in excess of P5,000 but not more than P20,000. If the amount involved is below P 5,000, the docket should be forwarded to the Revenue District Officer for preparation and service of the WDL. 3. If the assessment cannot stand scrutiny in court, the committee shall recommend the closing thereof which should be approved by the Regional Director. Upon approval by the Regional Director, appropriate action should be taken by the unit in the region concerned towards closing of the case. 4. Where the committee decides that although the case cannot stand scrutiny in court, it nevertheless needs adjustment, reinvestigation or any other action other than closing, the appropriate recommendation on the matter should be made, subject to the approval of the Regional Director, who shall refer the case to the unit concerned for appropriate action. 5. Dockets where the WDL has been prepared but upon service thereof, the taxpayer concerned requests for reinvestigation and the issues involved in the request for investigation are novel, precedent setting or which needs the action of the Regional Review Committee, will also be acted upon by the Committee for recommendation or not. The recommended action should be duly approved by the Regional Director which action shall be final. III. Chief, Collection Branch A. All reviewed cases by the Review Committee sustaining the bureau's action on the case shall be compiled and the corresponding WDL prepared if the amount involved is in excess of P5,000 but not more than P20,000; B. Upon signature of the Regional Director on the WDL prepared, it should be detached from the docket and forwarded to the Revenue District Officer concerned for service and execution. C. In case the docket reviewed by the Regional Review Committee is in an amount of less than P5,000, it should be forwarded to the Revenue District Officer for preparation, service and execution of WDL. IV. Revenue District Officer A. Upon receipt from the Regional Director of the WDL involving amounts in excess of P 5,000 but less than P20,000, appropriate recording should be made of the receipt thereof and the Revenue District Officer shall assign them to the examiners and revenue seizure agents in the district for service and execution. He shall see to it that the dockets are equitably distributed to the fieldmen concerned. B. Upon receipt of the dockets from the Regional Office where the amount involved is less than P5,000, the WDL shall then be prepared. After signature of the WDL, it shall be detached from the docket and assigned to the examiner or revenue seizure agent concerned. C. The dockets should be retained by the Revenue District Officer who shall be held responsible for its safekeeping and he shall see to it that they are not lost or tampered with. D. In all cases of assignment of WDL, the Revenue District Officer shall see to it that the cases are equitably distributed among the examiners and revenue seizure agents in the district. E. He shall follow up the progress of the service and execution of the WDL and may as the needs arise, call for progress reports on the status of the cases assigned. F. He must inform the examiners and revenue seizure agents to whom the cases were assigned that under no circumstance will the latter stop the service of the WDL. G. Any means or tactics employed by the taxpayer to delay service of the WDL should be immediately reported to the Revenue District Officer who shall evaluate the report and forward the docket to the Regional Review Committee for action if believes that committee should take action thereon. H. Requests for reinvestigation during service of the WDL should not be entertained by the fieldman and if the taxpayer insists on asking for reinvestigation and if upon determination by the examiner or revenue seizure agent the request appears to be meritorious, the taxpayer should be informed by the fieldman that his request for reinvestigation will be forwarded to superior officers for decision as to whether it should be given due course or not. The examiner should not act on such requests for reinvestigation unless ordered to do so in writing by the Revenue District Officer or Regional Director as the case may be. I. Requests for reinvestigation involving amounts in excess of P5,000 but not more than P20,000 should be forwarded to the Regional Review Committee for decision, whose action thereon will be final. J. Where the request for reinvestigation involves amounts below P5,000, the Revenue District Officer shall review the case and determine whether the issues involved are novel, precedent setting or involves questions of law or fact which needs the action of the Regional Review Committee. If the issues involved are very apparent from the docket itself which can be acted upon by the Revenue District Officer such as cases where one-half or the whole or part of the deductions have been dis-allowed by the examiner without going thru the books because the taxpayer refuses to show his books or cannot be contacted, the Revenue District Officer can decide if the corresponding reinvestigation should be conducted or not. He may at his discretion, create a review committee in the district if the number of fieldmen in the district warrants to assist him in the appreciation of the cases. K. The Revenue District Officer should inform the examiner or the revenue seizure agent under his jurisdiction that their performance in this work will be taken into account in the reorganization of the bureau. SEMINARS In the campaign for the closing of delinquent accounts as provided for in this Revenue Memorandum Order, the Regional Director upon recommendation of the Revenue District Officer shall determine whether a seminar should be conducted for the examiners and revenue seizure agents in the region to appraise them on the latest trends, rules and regulations on how the WDL should be served and executed. In the affirmative, the Regional Director shall inform the National Office and make arrangements for the dates, participants in the seminar, lecturers and other matters as may be necessary for the success of the seminar. All those concerned are enjoined to follow strictly the provisions of this Revenue Memorandum Order. MISAEL P. VERA Commissioner of Internal Revenue