BIR on social media influencers: “They will be taxed because of course, they are earning income.”
BIR – The Bureau of Internal Revenue will seek a dialogue with social media influencers to make them comply with tax laws in the Philippines amidst a widening adoption of different social media platforms for making a living.
BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, the tax bureau is not forgetting its plan to require social media influencers to pay their tax obligations to the Philippine government. According to Lumagui, social media influencers will be taxed because they are earning income.
“Social media influencers”, according to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, includes all taxpayers receiving income from any social media sites and platforms in exchange for services performed as bloggers, video bloggers or “vloggers” or as a social media influencer, in general, and from any other activities performed on such social media platforms and sites.
The tax bureau classified them as “self-employed persons engaged in business as sole proprietors”.
The tax commissioner noted that the messaging before wasn’t properly crafted, thus, the retaliation from social media influencers. Some social media influencers deleted their channels when the tax bureau announced its plan to go after them.
“What we want is a dialogue with them,” Lumagui said. “They have tax obligations as social media influencers because they are earning from vlogging. So this is their responsibility as income earners.”
Lumagui also said that no formal dialogue has been done with social media influencers, but the tax bureau is in the process of auditing them. This is part of the letters of authority issued to social media influencers for the tax bureau to conduct an investigation.
He emphasized that the Bureau of Internal Revenue wants to be “friendly” with influencers.
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To recall, the tax bureau said that it was looking into “at least 250” top earning social media influencers in order to determine if they have been paying their tax obligations to the Philippine government.
Based on the Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 97-2021, social media influencers are required to pay their income tax and percentage or value-added tax, if applicable, as mandated by the Tax Code.
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