MANILA: The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) discovered violations of some business establishments on the first day of its tax compliance verification drive (TCVD). On Thursday, BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. led the inspection activity of several shops in a mall in Mandaluyong City. Among the violations discovered on the first day of the TCVD implementation include unregistered businesses, unregistered point-of-sales and cash register machines, incomplete bookkeeping requirements, and required notice that should be placed inside the establishments. Lumagui said the nationwide TCVD, which will run until Friday, is part of BIR's information awareness campaign and is a friendly approach that aims to educate taxpayers concerning their tax obligations. "Ang layunin nito ay para ma educate ang ating mga taxpayers at hindi para magpenalize. Tinitingnan natin kung ano yung mga pagkukulang nila at yung mga potential na hindi nila ginagawa at turuan natin sila kung ano ang dapat nilang ginagawa para makapag co mply (The aim is to educate taxpayers and not to penalize. We are looking at uncomplied requirements and teach them what they should do so they could comply),' he said. From Mandaluyong, Lumagui proceeded to the BIR Revenue Region 8B office in Makati and conducted a command meeting with its field offices in the South National Capital Region (NCR) as they visit business establishments in their respective areas. Found violators were placed on video call as Lumagui explained to the establishment owners what they should do to be able to comply and avoid being penalized. For now, no penalties will be imposed, Lumagui said. However, after about three months, the BIR will again visit these establishments to check if compliance has been made. If an establishment still has not complied, he said that penalties would then be imposed. 'Penalties range from as low as PHP1,000 if it's a simple violation, sometimes it go reach up to PHP50,000, and if we see that there are undeclared sales like not-VAT-registered but we see that their sales have reached millions, it could go up to several millions depending on the violations,' he explained in Filipino. Source: Philippines News Agency