pon orders of the Department of Finance (DOF), the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has suspended Revenue Special Orders (RSOs) and Operations Memoranda (OMs) creating special audit task forces to prevent duplication of functions of BIR offices and avoid confusion among taxpayers.

Through a Memorandum issued by BIR Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Deputy Commissioner Marissa Cabreros, the RSOs creating the special audit task forces on real estate developers and direct selling/multi-level marketing, and the operations memoranda creating task forces for Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and electronic sabong (e-Sabong) were suspended immediately on Friday (May 20) until further notice.

“The functions and responsibilities of the different units in the BIR are provided in revenue administrative orders (RAOs) issued by the Secretary of Finance, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner,” Secretary of Finance Carlos Dominguez III said. “The issuance of the RSOs and OMs has distorted this and even caused uncertainty for some taxpayers,” he added.

The DOF also reiterated in the directive to the BIR that all existing audits and investigations under the RSOs and OMs shall be handled by the revenue district offices or unit/s in the BIR where the concerned taxpayers are registered.

“We are working with the BIR to review these issuances and ensure these do not create redundancies and cause taxpayer confusion,” Dominguez said. “If found to be in violation of our RAOs, these issuances should ultimately be revoked by the BIR”.

Relative to this order, all field audit and other field operations under the task forces authorized to conduct examinations and verifications of taxpayers’ books of account, records and other transactions were also ordered suspended.

As such, no field audit, field operations or any form of business visitation in execution of any letter of authority/audit notices, letter notices or mission orders should be conducted by the task forces.

The RSOs and OMs allowed revenue officers to secure and conduct examination of books of accounts, papers, records, and other documents, and issue letters of authority in connection with the task force’s audit or investigation.

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