Amid the widening adoption of different social media platforms for income, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) will seek a dialogue with influencers for tax law compliance.
According to BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, the agency is not forgetting its plan to require social media influencers to pay their tax contributions to the government.
Moreover, social media influencers are defined as people who earned money through their digital posts, making them tagged as self-employed persons engaged in business as sole proprietors.
Lumagui emphasized that the messaging back then was improperly crafted, even with the retaliation from vloggers and other influencers.
As such, some content creators have already deleted their channels following the announcement of BIR's plan to go after social media personalities.
Earlier, the BIR looked into at least 250 of the top-earning social media influencers to know if they had been paying their tax obligations.
In the BIR circular, influencers must pay income tax and, if applicable, a percentage value-added tax as required by the Tax Code.
He stated that no formal dialogue has taken place with social media influencers, but that the BIR is currently auditing them, being one of the letters of authority given to influencers by the BIR in order for them to conduct an investigation.
Lumagui stressed the BIR's desire to be "friends" with social media influencers, mentioning that lottery agents and operators had a lot of misunderstandings and misconceptions about their obligations before they were formally taxed.
He stated that lotto agents and operators were unaware that they needed to register and that the agency initiated a briefing with them.
Meanwhile, the BIR said that social media influencers earn money from a variety of sources, including YouTube, sponsored social and blog posts, display advertising, and affiliate marketing.

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BIR seeks dialogue with vloggers, social media influencers for tax compliance