BIR chief tenders courtesy resignation

BIR chief tenders courtesy resignation | Daily Tribune

Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Romeo Lumagui Jr. on Friday tendered his courtesy resignation to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. after seeking the courtesy resignation of key officials to realign government priorities with people’s expectations.

Lumagui shared this through a post in his personal Facebook account on Friday. “I fully support the call of President Marcos for accountability in public service,” he said.

“As such, I am tendering my courtesy resignation as the commissioner of Internal Revenue to give the Chief Executive a freehand in evaluating my performance in pursuit of further improving public service under his administration,” Lumagui continued.

The Malacañang Palace has yet to announce Marcos’ decision on his courtesy resignation.

While Lumagui is waiting for a decision from the Palace, he also used his courtesy resignation letter to thank Marcos for choosing him to lead the BIR.

Lumagui also said he is praying that the Marcos administration will be able to raise Filipinos’ quality of living.

Lumagui was appointed by Marcos as BIR chief on 15 November 2022.

During the BIR’s National Tax Campaign Kick-off 2025 in February, Marcos lauded the BIR for surpassing its tax collection for 2024.

“I am pleased and proud to announce that the Bureau of Internal Revenue met its collection target for the first time in 20 years,” he said.

“I know that you have heard that before but we choose to repeat it because it is a very big achievement,” Marcos continued.

The BIR collected P2.86 trillion last year which also surpassed the target of P2.85 trillion for 2024 and the P2.52 trillion in 2023.

Under his leadership, Lumagui said the BIR has achieved 97 percent digitalization rate after launching electronic tools on faster taxpayer registration and monitoring.

250 evasion cases filed

He also reported that the BIR had already filed over 250 tax evasion cases in 2023 alone, reflecting tax liabilities worth over P18 billion.

In an interview with Daily Tribune, Lumagui said the BIR plans to build a national contact center where agents can answer public inquiries immediately and process reports on any concerns or problems quickly. He said the BIR is looking to build the center as soon as possible or next year when the budget for this project becomes available.