A senatorial aspirant on Tuesday vowed to push for clearer guidelines in taxing vloggers (video bloggers) and other social media influencers should he win in the May 9 polls.

In a statement Tuesday, Partido Reporma candidate Guillermo Eleazar said news reports about the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) running after vloggers and social media influencers have sown fears and confusion among them, fearing that they would be investigated and would even be sent to jail.

“Ang ilalaban natin ay magkaroon ng patas at malinaw na panuntutanan sa pagbabayad ng buwis ng mga social media influencers upang maiwasan natin ang kalituhan at pangamba (What we will push for is to have fair and clear guidelines in the payment of taxes by social media influencers to avoid confusion and fear in their ranks),” he added.

In August last year, the BIR issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 97-2021, stating that social media influencers shall be liable to Income Tax and Percentage Tax or Value-Added Tax (VAT) pursuant to the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1997, as amended, and other existing laws.

The issuance of the circular came after the bureau had received reports that some influencers are not paying taxes while some are not even registered with them.

According to the BIR, social media influencers, other than corporations and partnerships, are classified for tax purposes as “self-employed individuals or persons engaged in trade or business as sole proprietors, and therefore, their income is generally considered as business income.”

Social media influencers are reminded to voluntarily and truthfully declare their income and pay their corresponding taxes without waiting for a formal probe to be conducted by the BIR to avoid being liable for tax evasion and the civil penalty of 50 percent of the tax or the deficiency tax. (PNA)