The Problem Is Us!

In an opinion article entitled "Bad news and good news" in yesterday's Philippine Daily Inquirer, columnist Winnie Monsod made a comment that caught my eye. While offering well-deserved praise for the Commissioner of the Bureau of Internal Revenue for his campaign against tax cheats, Ms. Monsod also cautioned the commissioner to be alert to corruption within the BIR. She says:

"One taxpayer I know paid P300,000 in income tax and was issued a receipt of P25,000. Another paid about P2.3 million and got a receipt for P200,000. Unfortunately, they are afraid to blow the whistle for fear of being harrassed in the future."

What she just described is a common occurrence, not only in the Philippines but in any country with a corrupt bureaucracy. In both of these examples, the actual tax owed was probably much higher than the amount paid. The P300,000 may have been reduced from an original bill of 1 or 2 million, or even more. Other than the tax-collector though, government doesn't know the original amount, and it doesn't know the amount that actually changed hands. As far as government is concerned, the documented tax obligation was P25,000, and that's the amount that was collected. But what really happened was that government (and of course, the country) was cheated out of a substantial amount, and the tax-collector put a hefty sum into his own pocket, which in this case amounted to P275,000. And by the way, the P25,000 that actually made it to the National Treasury is more or less equal to one month's salary for the tax-collector. So in a way, government's gain on this transaction was exactly 0 pesos.

Now I realize that the people in these examples are probably friends of the columnist, but the truth is, they have participated in a crime. Ok sure, they may have been coerced by the tax-collector, or felt an unspoken fear that they would forevermore be subjected to "tax-man's revenge", but a crime is still a crime. And herein lies the problem. Many of us, myself included, pay our taxes honestly, no matter how little faith we have that the money will actually make it all the way to the National Treasury. But when we become aware of someone who cheats, we don't say a word. Forget the issue of which party, the tax-payer or the tax-collector, is more wrong. That is for the courts to deal with. And as difficult as it may be, forget the fact that the cheater may be your friend. That person, along with at least one BIR official and probably others, has broken the law, and has robbed the country of desperately needed revenue. No one has a right to look the other way, even when it involves a friend or acquaintance. This is one of the core problems facing this country.

I don't mean to single out this particular columnist, and in fact I have great respect for her. But it's not enough just to preach from a soapbox (or a newspaper opinion column). People have to start getting involved. It doesn't matter how many laws we have. Nothing will ever change until people start reporting violators.