URDANETA CITY—Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares has an advice to candidates in the May 9 elections.

Henares said campaign donations to aspirants must be spent.

“If you don’t spend in the campaign and there’s something left (from the donated money) and when you don’t want to pay taxes, (you should) return the money to the donor,” Henares said.

Henares told newsmen Friday during the inauguration of the new BIR building of Revenue District Office 6 in the city.

She added, “If you don’t return that (to the donor), you must report that in your income tax return and pay your taxes.”

Henares also reminded the candidates to withhold five percent for services and materials paid like tarpaulins, airtime, pamphlets, among others.

She also advised campaign donors “to make sure you pay the right taxes because if you donate but you are not paying taxes, where did you get your money?”

Meanwhile, Henares told BIR employees to “do our job properly, try to collect as efficiently as possible and make sure there is a growth rate that is bigger than nominal gross domestic product growth”.

She added that goal set for target collection is already unrealistic like this year when they are expected to grow by 40 percent.

“Where on earth can you see in the history that a tax collection agency grows by 40 percent? I mean the philosophy is, let us try, let us work hard, ” she said.

Henares also said the new BIR building here is part of the agency’s thrust to build its own building in its district and regional offices. The BIR office here is the seventh new building in Region 1 built under Henares’ term.

BIR spent more than P60-million in its four-storey building here while the lot where it was built was a donation. (Tita Roces)

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