THE Bureau of Internal Revenue's stellar May 2026 revenue collections was attributed to the agency's five-point priority reform agenda embodied in the acronym DARE: Digital transformation, Audit accountability, Revenue collection, Employee empowerment and Service excellence.
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The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) collected P279.14 billion in gross revenues in May 2026, up 14.15 percent or P34.61 billion from a year earlier, as collections benefited from the extended tax filing season and sustained taxpayer compliance.
The May haul also slightly exceeded the agency’s P279.06-billion target by P78.22 million.
Additional time
BIR commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza said the extension of the filing season, approved by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., gave taxpayers additional time to meet their obligations amid the energy crisis while easing compliance pressures.
“The May results show that revenue growth and BIR DARES reforms can move together. We will continue to support taxpayers through clearer rules, simpler processes, and better digital services, while protecting the revenue base through stronger enforcement and compliance monitoring,” Mendoza said.
Collections also exceeded April’s target
Collections earlier also exceeded the April target by P12.78 billion, or 3.12 percent, despite the Bureau suspending excise taxes on kerosene and LPG.
For the January-to-May period, BIR revenues reached P1.434 trillion, 5.49 percent higher than the P1.359 trillion collected in the same period last year. The five-month total also surpassed the agency’s P1.424-trillion target by P9.71 billion.
Mendoza said the revenue growth coincided with the rollout of several reforms under the BIR DARES agenda, including the launch of the Taxpayer Portal for the Large Taxpayers Service, the implementation of QR-enabled Certificates of Registration for online businesses, the Ease of Closing Business reform and measures supporting the new mining royalty regime under Republic Act 12253.
