Prohibition of Field and Office Investigations During the Christmas Season

December 14, 1987 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 38-87 SUBJECT : Prohibition of Field and Office Investigations During the Christmas Season TO : All Revenue Officers and Others Concerned In order to enable the taxpayers to cope with the increased volume of activities during the Holiday Season, to avoid contact by fieldmen with taxpayers during the said period which may be misconstrued by the public and to enable all fieldmen to prepare required reports and inventory of pending cases, all tax investigations and other similar activities are hereby suspended effective Wednesday, December 16 up to the end of the year. cd i The following guidelines are hereby promulgated for compliance by the officials and employees concerned: 1. Fieldmen shall stay in their respective offices to prepare: a) Field and office audit reports on investigations that have already been completed and to submit the same for processing. Priority should be given to those which are about to prescribe, those involving refunds and on collection of delinquent accounts; b) Inventories of pending cases as of December 31, 1987; and cd i c) Monthly reports required for the month of December and for previous months which have not yet been submitted. These reports shall be submitted not later than January 5, 1988. Fieldmen who have not submitted the required reports shall not be allowed to resume field and office audit investigations until they have complied with the requirements. The monthly reports referred to shall include collection reports, time records, travel expense vouchers and other monthly reports required for fieldmen. 2. Heads of Offices shall organize study groups for updating the proficiency of their fieldmen particularly on new tax laws, amended provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code and the implementing regulations. cd i 3. Division Chiefs, Branch Chiefs, Revenue District Officers and others concerned with the processing of investigation reports shall expedite the processing thereof. 4. Chiefs of Services, Regional Directors, Chiefs of Divisions and Branches, Revenue District Officers and other Heads of Units and Offices shall require employees under their respective jurisdictions, whether fieldmen or not, to submit the required list of pending dockets or cases in their possession as of December 31, 1987. 5. The prohibition to conduct field or office audit investigation is absolute with the exception of Revenue Enforcement Officers assigned to regulatory and supervisory functions concerning establishments manufacturing articles subject to excise taxes. acd Revenue Service Chiefs, Regional Directors, Division Chiefs, Branch Chiefs, Revenue District Officers and other supervisors are hereby enjoined to give wide publicity to the provisions of the Order and are hereby held responsible for the strict compliance of its provisions. Any violation thereof will be administratively dealt with. (SGD.) BIENVENIDO A. TAN, JR. Commissioner