MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Thursday required individual taxpayers receiving salary, or compensation income of P500,000 and more annually to file their 2010 income tax returns (ITRs) themselves which are due on or before April 15.

Under Revenue Regulations 2-2011, approved by Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima based on the recommendation of BIR Commissioner Kim S. Jacinto-Henares, the taxpayers were removed from the coverage of the substituted filing system (SFS) that requires employers to file the ITRs of their workers.

By next year, the BIR is planning to scrap SFS altogether to monitor closely tax payments from this source.

Revenue officials said the agency has been losing substantial amount of income taxes from salaried workers because tax withholding data submitted by employers were unreliable and inaccurate as they have no authority to audit the tax exemption claims of their workers.

In interviews, many taxpayers protested the new regulations, stating that the bureau did not hold public hearings or publicize the issue before imposing it.

They said the BIR should have delayed its implementation up to next year, considering that the deadline in the filing of 2010 ITRs is less than six weeks and that they have no more time to prepare the additional attachments. (Jun Ramirez)