Collection Of Estate Taxes

[Dave Hounddriver]

What is your wife's plan to get your money in the event you die while in the Philippines? I have told my wife, (wonder if she was listening), to start pulling money out the of bank with my ATM card until it is all gone and never even tell the bank I am dead. Not sure how this will affect us in that event.Finance chief to go after heirs avoiding payment of 20% estate taxBy Ronnel DomingoPhilippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 01:49:00 03/31/2011Filed Under: State Budget & Taxes, Family, Banking, CrimeMost ReadMANILA, Philippines—Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima has vowed that the government will go after bank managers who allow heirs to draw down on the accounts of deceased depositors, enabling them to avoid paying the 20-percent estatetax.Purisima said the move got the backing of the Department of Justice and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima agreed that such a practice “is a crime that we can pursue.”“Tax evasion cannot happen without the cooperation of someone in the private sector such as an accountant or a manager in a bank,” he said.“Our collection of estate taxes is so low because all these branch managers allow the family to withdraw the money on the day of the death of the clients, it’s part of their service,” he added.Purisima also said tax cheats have also been getting help from credit officers who would use second sets of books in considering loan applications.Even when freshly re-installed as finance chief in 2010, Purisima had talked about going after heirs to substantial estates who have not been paying the proper tax.He said the government’s collection of the estate tax reached only about P1 billion, an amount to small when considering that some 400,000 people die yearly.This put the average estate tax paid at P2,500, a figure that should be higher considering that “there were many people who passed away but to whom large amounts of wealth were attributed to.”In February 2010, then Internal RevenueCommissioner Joel L. Tan-Torres said the Bureau of Internal Revenue expected to collect an additional P10.7 billion in estate taxes through a campaign he dubbed“Project RIP.”Tan-Torres said the campaign was also meant to intensify assessment and maximize collection of estate tax by increasing awareness of the public on its proper payment.The BIR under Tan-Torres year issued Revenue Memorandum Order No. 10-2010, which has mandated BIR offices to work with public and private institutions to access information about heirs, including civil registers, hospitals, memorial parks, cemeteries, funeral parlors, crematoriums, judicial clerks of courts, newspapers (obituaries), life insurance firms and other financial entities.