Boxing champion Manny Pacquiao remains the country’s top taxpayer in the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) revised list of individual taxpayers for the year 2008.

However, ABS-CBN’s “Wowowee” host Willie Revillame and actor Piolo Pascual (Jose Nonato in real life) were dislodged from their top 5 ranking by business tycoons.

In the revised list, Revillame went down from number two to six, while Piolo slid from number three to 18th place.

They were replaced mostly by business tycoons and leaders of various industries.

BIR Commissioner Joel L Tan-Torres would not say the exact amount paid by these taxpayers as the Tax Code prohibits such disclosure.

He said, however, that these taxpayers paid an average of P28.8 million in income tax. Tan-Torres said Pacquiao paid in nine digits which can be translated to over P100 million.

The top taxpayers starting from the number two slot are Elaine Bautista Gardiola, Ronaldo Romero Soliman, Rainero Manapat Borja, Lauro Liboon Baja Jr., Francisco dela Fuente Guerra III, Kristina Aquino Yap, Patricia Miranda Zobel de Ayala, Manuel Bayan Zamora Jr., Eduardo Murphy Cojuangco Jr., Manuel Velez Pangilinan, Beatriz Susana Zobel de Ayala Urquijo, Gigi Chio Basco, Manuel Moreno Lopez, Christopher Salcedo Co, Justo Aboitiz Ortiz, Ramon See Ang, and Federico Rufino Lopez.

Meanwhile, the BIR reminded individual and corporate taxpayers that they have only until today to submit their 2009 income tax returns (ITRs).

Tan-Torres said that like in the past, the deadline will not be extended and penalties will be imposed for late filers.

The BIR chief said all authorized-agent-banks (AABs) have been requested to extended their banking hours up to 5 p.m. and assigned additional personnel to accept and process ITRs.

He asked the banks not to accept out-of-district ITRs, starting last Monday, meaning taxpayers should file their returns at the revenue district office which has jurisdiction over their place of business, or residence.

He said the old practice was discontinued due to various problems encountered by the bureau like mishandling and difficulty in tracing the whereabouts of such returns.

A 25-percent surcharge will be slapped for wrong venue filing of ITRs.