The Commission on Audit called out the Bohol provincial government for failing to promptly remit P5.27 million in taxes withheld from 2021 to 2022.

In its report covering 2022, CoA said taxes withheld were not fully remitted, with an accumulated unremitted balance of P5,263,204.95 for the 12-month period December 2021 to November 2022

The non-compliance with tax laws, state auditors noted, runs counter to BIR Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 23-2012, stipulating that the responsibilities of government officials include withholding the correct amount of tax and remitting the withheld taxes within the prescribed periods.

Under the circular, failure to perform these responsibilities exposes the concerned government personnel to the risk of paying applicable interest and surcharge.

Based on the audit, the Bohol provincial government was not able to remit intact the taxes withheld in a particular month in the immediately succeeding month as remittances made are either lower than the previous month's withheld taxes or higher in the next with the effect of partly compensating for the month or months with lower remittance.

Auditors attributed the lapses to the flawed design of processes and procedures concerning the withholding and remittance of taxes. The responsibility for withholding and remittance of taxes is shared between the provincial accounting office and the treasurer's office.

"With this set up, PGBh (provincial government of Bohol) has no mechanism for ensuring that all the withheld taxes for a particular month as recorded in the books of accounts maintained by PAccO (provincial accounting office) were all included in the remittance prepared by PTO (provincial treasurer's office) in the ensuing month precluding management from ensuring compliance with its obligations as withholding agents under the cited BIR issuances and exposing the concerned personnel to the risk of being imposed fines and penalties," CoA said.

Thus, CoA said the Bohol provincial government should come up with its computation and file an amended tax return as may be necessary for the accumulated unremitted taxes from December 2021 to November 2022.

The provincial government, meanwhile, informed auditors that an alpha list of all employees is being prepared annually, showing the taxable income and taxes withheld and remitted with the accounting office, ensuring that the amount of taxes remitted equals the amount of tax due of each employee, among others.

The auditing body, however, said Bohol should strive to ensure that its obligations as a withholding agent are not only performed and evaluated at year-end but also at each month-end.

"This is considering that earlier detection and correction of errors are more likely to prevent errors from accumulating and are fewer and easier to address as opposed to errors detected at year-end, which are several and cumulative and more difficult to correct," CoA said.