The Cooperative Development Authority (CDA) Palawan reminds cooperatives in the province to be cautious in availing services from fixers to process their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to avoid acquiring falsified cards.
CDA-Palawan specialist Marian Concepcion said that the most vulnerable are the marginalized sector, who get into transactions with fixers despite the payment.
CDA shared during the Provincial Cooperative Development Council meeting that there are members of a certain cooperative in Palawan who paid P500 each for the processing of their TINs and later found out that their numbers were invalid upon verification by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
“One of the requirements for the tax exemption of BIR is the TIN of the members of the cooperative. They were trying to comply with the requirements. Unfortunately, meron pala nagkalat na mga fixer who offered help, actually, marginalized sector ito,” she said.
The first-time application for TIN Card is free of charge, according to BIR.
However, some might fall into availing transactions with fixers to avoid long queues, Concepcion said, adding that she also requested for the bureau to strengthen their ease of doing business to encourage direct transactions with the BIR.
“Actually, ang threat dito ay sa mga poor na kababayan natin na P500 is so much na sa kanila tapos mavi-victimize pa sila ng fly-by-night fixers. Siguro ayaw lang nila makipag-transact sa BIR kasi they avoid the long lines, ang threat nito ay sa poor natin mga kababayan, sa rural areas na pumapatol sa ganito,” she said.
She reminded cooperatives that they can process their members’ cards provided with an authorization to be presented to BIR. (RG/ PIA MIMAROPA-Palawan)
