Report: BIR tightens noose on imported premium vehicles

The Bureau of Internal Revenue has reportedly made importing a premium vehicle harder for local distributors since the agency is now asking them to secure a release authority for each unit that they\'ll be bringing into the country.

According to BusinessWorld, the BIR recently issued Revenue Memorandum Order 21-2013, which implements the policy of issuing an \"Authority to Release Imported Good\" (ATRIG) document per automobile \"for value-added and excise tax purposes.\"

Based on the memorandum filed by the BIR, one ATRIG shall be issued for each automobile unit with a net importer\'s price of over P2.1 million, excluding the value-added and excise taxes. In cases where a vehicle importer has a single \"Bill of Lading\" that lists down several automobiles, one ATRIG shall still be issued for every unit of automobile, \"regardless of the net importer\'s selling price.\"

We won\'t pretend to be tax experts here but we do have to wonder: With the government tightening the noose on legitimate vehicle importation, how would this affect the pricing of cars sold by the country\'s vehicle importers and distributors? And would this discourage the blatant undervaluing of imported cars?

Photo from SXC.hu