TAMP or Taxpayer Account Management Program, which was formerly called Adopt-A Taxpayer Program, was created to enhance voluntary tax compliance of taxpayers. The program concerns top business taxpayers, individuals or non-individuals, which accounts for at least 80% of District Collections.
In this program, Revenue Officers (ROs) in each Revenue District Office (RDO)/Large Taxpayers Audit and Investigation Division (LTAID)/Large Taxpayers District Office (LTDO) are assigned a number of taxpayers which he/she shall monitor or assist, if needed. In the process of monitoring these taxpayers, ROs analyze each taxpayer’s tax compliance. With the data gathered through this TAMP, benchmarks for each industry and the peculiarities of each industry and taxpayer are established, which become the basis of the imposition of enforcement action. Through these, the ROs can then be able to determine if a taxpayer has either a “low” or “high” tax compliance.
Taxpayers having a “low” tax compliance can become subject for audit, surveillance, stocktaking or such other means of uncovering undeclared income and unpaid taxes. It is similar to the Account Executive and Account Manager Concept in the Private Corporate environment which shall be part of performance measurement of the individual Revenue Officers (RO).
Who are TAMP Taxpayers?
They refer to taxpayers that have been identified by the RDO which account for at least 80% of the tax collection of the District and as such are the top taxpayers who are covered by TAMP. All taxpayers under the jurisdiction of the Large Taxpayers Service and RDO 19-SBMA shall automatically be considered as TAMP taxpayers. On top of the number provided above, taxpayers whose annual sales/receipts or gross purchases or claimed deductible itemized expenses, as the case may be, amounted to Twelve Million Pesos (P12M) or more during the preceding taxable year, shall be included in TAMP, accompanied by a notice stating so from the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) thru a publication in a newspaper of general circulation.
The list of TAMP taxpayers shall be updated annually based on the revenue collections of all tax types, except one-time tax types and Registration Fees, for the immediately preceding year which shall be generated on or before May 15, and shall be immediately transmitted to the concerned RDO. This is due to various factors such as, but not limited to, cessation or closure of business, transfer to another RDO, drastic change in the revenue collections, and merger or consolidation.
They (TAMP Tax Payers) shall be strictly monitored on their stop filer cases, drastic changes in revenue payments, submission of required information returns and lists, and compliance with revenue rules and regulations.
There shall be classifications, and minimum number of TAMP Taxpayers by the RDO:
- Class A-B 1,500
- Class C-D 1,000
- Class E-F 500
- Class G-H 300
The RDO shall be held responsible for the updates and cleansing of registered tax types of TAMP taxpayers, for the strict monitoring of returns filing and payments, and for the monitoring of compliance on the submission of required Alphalists of Payees/Employees, Summary Lists of Sales/Purchases/Importation (SLS/P/I), Inventory Lists (if applicable), and other tax information requirements of the Bureau prescribed in various revenue issuances.
What is its significance?
Under a Revenue Memorandum Order, the BIR identified the offices that should handle the enforcement activities on taxpayers included in the TAMP. This is to avoid duplication on issuance of Letter of Authority (LA), Tax Verification Notice (TVN) and Mission Order (MO), and any unwarranted issuances – to show that taxpayers covered by the TAMP of the BIR are being handled with caution and circumspection. There are also enforcement activities that would enhance voluntary compliance or maintain high voluntary compliance and should not hinder tax compliance that to be effective, it should be based on appropriate risk assessment or risk analysis.
Part of the policies of TAMP, among others, is that audit, surveillance and stock taking activities to be imposed on large taxpayers can only be done by LTAID I, LTAID II or LTDOs, considering all these taxpayers are included in the TAMP. The guidelines list down the officers assigned to the taxpayers as determined.”
What to do when you receive a TAMP letter from BIR?
If you received a letter notice from BIR that you are a TAMP Taxpayer, or your registered business name is in the list of TAMP Taxpayers (Top Withholding Agent) found in BIR website, you are obligated/required to comply with the following mandates:
- Taxpayers identified under TAMP (Top Withholding Agent) should withhold from income payments to its local or resident supplier of goods (1%) and local/resident supplier of services (2%) (RR 11-2018)
- Taxpayers are required to enroll under Electronic Filing and Payment of returns/taxes (eFPS) (RR 10-2014)
- 1604C should be submitted together with the Alphabetical Lists of Employees/Payees on or before January 31 of the following year (RR 2-98, as amended).
- BIR 1604E should be submitted with the Alphabetical List of Payees on or before March 1 (RR 2-98, as amended).
- Quarterly Alphalist of Payees (QAP) is a mandatory attachment for income payor taxpayers of which taxes have been withheld.
- Summary Alphalist of Withholding Tax (SAWT) of Income Payments subjected to tax withheld at source is a mandatory attachment (RR 2-2006 as amended)
The TAMP taxpayers are also required to provide data/information on tax payments prior to the deadline for Revenue Forecasting and on transactions that have impact on tax collections upon request of the Account Officer. The filing and/or payment of open cases (unfiled returns) are strictly monitored until resolved (RMO-41).
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