Traders warned: Be transparent

The city government has warned businesses to be transparent and declare all their taxable incomes.
City Treasurers Office (CTO) head Erwin Alparaque said the businesses must be reminded to pay the correct taxes when they file their financial statements as the city government is employing the Presumptive Income Level Assessment Approach (PILAA) to ensure that they become transparent.
“During the renewal of business permits, it is part of the strategies of the City Treasurers Office to apply what we call the PILAA,” said Alparaque last week explaining that the tool, which has been used by local government units in the country, is able to identify which among the businesses are cheating in filing their financial statements so they could not pay the correct taxes.
The tool is used at the height of the renewal of business permits when it has very limited time to verify the amount of gross sales declared by the applicants.
Meanwhile, Alparaque said agencies that do the inspection of businesses, the CTO and the Business Bureau, sometimes find out that some of the businesses are operating without the necessary permits
“Once we conduct examination of their book of account including their financial statements, official receipts and ledgers and then we trace discrepancy they have to pay additional tax plus the surcharges of 25% and an interest of 2%,” he said.