DIGEST OF 1998 REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDERS

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REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 1-98 issued January 21, 1998 sets the revenue target of the BIR for CY 1998, as well as prescribes the methodology to determine the following: i) estimated CY 1997 collection and CY 1998 goal of each region; ii) CY 1998 regional goal for each major type of tax; and iii) monthly regional goal allocation for each type of tax. In relation thereto, the Regional Directors are directed to submit to the Statistics Division, not later than January 26, 1998, the distribution of regional goals by Revenue District Office, by month and by type of taxes. The Regional Directors are also directed to review and evaluate their collection performance against their goals to determine the effect of the CTRP implementation.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 2-98 issued January 21, 1998 prescribes the policies and guidelines to intensify the collection/settlement of delinquent accounts under Republic Act (RA) No. 8424, otherwise known as the Tax Reform Act of 1997. The Revenue Regional Approval Committee is authorized to settle, by way of compromise and/or abatement, delinquent accounts covering 1996 and prior taxable years, the basic taxes of which do not exceed P500,000. The collection in each case should not be lower than the prescribed minimum percentages, to wit: i) tax due per return - 100% of the basic tax; ii) second installment of income tax - 100% of the basic tax; and iii) other delinquent account cases - 50% of the basic tax. The same minimum percentages will apply to delinquent account cases with basic taxes exceeding P500,000. Dockets of said cases will be forwarded to the BIR Management Committee, for final approval.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 3-98 issued February 4, 1998 creates new categories of Alphanumeric Tax Code (ATC) to facilitate the identification and monitoring of certain revenue sources subject to final withholding, as required under the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program and for Integrated Tax System purposes. Said revenue sources are: a) foreign currency deposits both for resident-individual and resident-corporate; b) fringe benefits paid to supervisors/managers by the corporation; c) improperly accumulated earnings; d) royalties on books, literary works and musical compositions; e) cash dividends; and f) property dividends.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 4-98 issued February 5, 1998 indicates the authorized signatories of checks, documents and papers on financial and administrative matters, specifically Disbursement Vouchers, Purchase Orders, Job Orders, contracts up to P50,000, Requisition and Issue Vouchers and other documents/papers which are administrative in nature and related to revenue accounting functions. The Chairmanship of the Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee (PBAC), which devolves upon the Assistant Commissioner, Financial and Administrative Service under Revenue Special Order No. 1218-97, will now be exercised by the Assistant Commissioner, Administrative Service.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 5-98 issued February 6, 1998 prescribes the policies and procedures relative to the screening, selection and grant of scholarships under the Masteral Degree in Tax Management Program of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas, in accordance with the Civil Service Commission's Memorandum Circular No. 13, series of 1992. The said Program will be offered and implemented by the following UP Visayas units to serve the corresponding Revenue Regions (RRs): a) UP Visayas College of Management for RR No. 11, Iloilo City and RR No. 12, Bacolod City; b) UP Cebu College for RR No. 13, Cebu City; and c) UP Tacloban College for RR No. 14, Tacloban City. The obligations and responsibilities of the grantee and the counterpart support of the Bureau are specified in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 6-98 issued February 10, 1998 prescribes the policies and procedures for the internal recruitment of personnel (from Division Chief level down to the lowest hiring position level) for the Revenue Data Centers (RDCs). The RDC Internal Recruitment Committee will establish the specific criteria for selection, testing, training and assignment of revenue personnel in the RDC, as well as administer and implement the policies and procedures for the same.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 7-98 issued February 11, 1998 prescribes the implementation policies, guidelines and procedures to implement the Trainer Assignment Program (TAP) for the mass rollout of the Integrated Tax System (ITS). The following are specified in the Order: a) distribution of trainer commitments; b) nomination and selection of ITS trainers; c) scheduling of ITS trainers; d) travel logistics; e) trainer deferment; f) travel liquidation; and g) ITS trainers honoraria.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 8-98 issued February 13, 1998 prescribes the policies, guidelines and procedures to implement the Corporate Stock and Documentary Stamp Tax (DST) Program. The filing of the Corporate Stock DST Declaration and the DST Return (BIR Form No. 2000) are required to be done by the following: a) all existing corporations when DST is still due on the subscribed share issued by the corporation; b) all new corporations; and c) all existing corporations with authorization for increased capital stock when DST is due on subscriptions made after the authorization. A surcharge equivalent to 25% of the amount due will be imposed in cases of: a) failure to file the return and pay the tax due on or before the prescribed deadline and b) failure to pay the full amount of tax shown in the required tax return. In case of willful neglect to file the required return within the period prescribed or in case a false or fraudulent return is willfully made, the penalty to be imposed will be 50% of the total amount due.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 9-98 issued February 16, 1998 revises RMO No. 20-97 by prescribing additional policies, guidelines and procedures for the grant and revocation of access to identified users. This will vary based on the classification, as follows: a) Access to Inquire Function; b) Access to Update Function; c) Access to Approve Function; d) Access to View Function; and e) Access to View/Print Function. Regular access will be granted only to personnel after completion of the appropriate training relevant to ones functional role/designation. Temporary access and special access may also be granted under scenarios specified in the Order. The System Administrators of the ISOS and the Revenue Data Centers shall monitor the use of access privileges based on audit trails, and shall report any possible abuse or unauthorized entry into the ITS modules to the Assistant Commissioner, ISOS or RDC Head.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 10-98 issued February 17, 1998 amends RMO No. 27-97 by prescribing the Codes Table for use in the implementation of the Integrated Tax System (ITS) on the Zonal Valuation Codes of NOMIS. The Order issued three (3) versions of the Zonal Valuation Codes Tables for the following Revenue District Office (RDO) pilot sites, namely: a) RDO 28 - Novaliches; b) RDO 30 - Binondo; c) RDO 32 - Quiapo/Sampaloc/San Miguel; d) RDO 33 - Intramuros/Ermita/Malate; e) RDO 38 - North Quezon City; f) RDO 39 - South Quezon City; g) RDO 40 - Cubao; h) RDO 52 - Parañaque; i) RDO 81 - Cebu City (North); and RDO 82 - Cebu City (South). Version 3 is based on the most recent issuances of the Department of Finance.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 11-98 issued February 17, 1998 prescribes the audit policies and procedures in the audit of 1996 and 1997 Value-Added Tax returns. The following order of priority will be used in the audit: a) returns with claims for VAT credit/refund; b) break-even VAT returns; c) VAT returns with excess tax credit for any or all of the four quarters; d) VAT returns with quarterly gross sales/receipts of P1,000,000 and above for revenue districts in Metro Manila covered by Revenue Region Nos. 5, 6, 7 and 8 (Valenzuela, Manila, Quezon City and Makati), except Revenue District Office Nos. 35 - Romblon, 36 - Puerto Princesa/Palawan and 37 - San Jose, Occidental Mindoro; and e) quarterly gross sales/receipts of P500,000 and above for all other RDOs, including RDO Nos. 35, 36 and 37. VAT returns selected for audit by the investigating divisions under the Enforcement Service and VAT returns of taxpayers who availed of the Voluntary Assessment Program (VAP) under RMO No. 63-97, as amended, are excluded from the coverage of the Order, except VAT returns of taxpayers who availed of the VAP but whose availments were found to be substantially deficient.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 12-98 issued February 17, 1998 prescribes the policies and procedures to implement the Audit Program for 1998 by specifying the coverage (mandatory and other priorities) as well as the exceptions to the Program. Letters of Authority (LA)/Audit Notices (AN) will be issued to cover 1996 and 1997 internal revenue tax returns. One LA/AN will be issued for each taxable year. All taxpayers selected for audit by the Revenue District Offices must be submitted in a list, through the Regional Director, to the Assistant Commissioner, Assessment Service, for approval before issuance of LAs/ANs.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 13-98 issued February 18, 1998 prescribes the additional policies and operational guidelines for the implementation of the Taxpayer Record Update (TRU) for taxpayers earning pure compensation income in non-Integrated Tax Systems (ITS) converted Revenue District Offices. The Order specifies the procedures for the: a) conduct of TRU Phase II briefings for employers; b) screening and validation of 1902 Forms; c) transmittal of 1902 Forms to the Information Systems Operations Service; d) encoding of forms; and e) preparation of the weekly Status Reports.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 14-98 issued February 19, 1998 prescribes the policies and guidelines to implement Revenue Regulations No. 10-97 which designates the following government officials as withholding agents: a) all heads of offices and the Chief Accountants in departments, bureaus, agencies, instrumentalities, government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCCs) and other government offices; b) the Provincial Treasurers and Governors in provinces; c) the City Treasurers and Mayors in cities; d) the Municipal Treasurers and Mayors in municipalities; and e) the Barangay Treasurers and Barangay Captains in barangays, together with their respective Chief Accountants. Said government officials are personally charged with the duty to withhold and remit taxes on compensation, expanded and final withholding taxes, as well as government money payments on value-added taxes and other percentage taxes, including franchise taxes. The names of the incumbents to said positions shall be submitted by the office concerned to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, ATTN: The Revenue District Officer, within 30 days from receipt of notification. Any change of incumbents will have to be reported and the names of the replacements submitted within 10 days from date of change or replacement.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 15-98 issued February 24, 1998 prescribes the policies and guidelines to institutionalize the Management Committee (MANCOM) which will be composed of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, as Chairman, and the four (4) Deputy Commissioners of the Bureau's functional Groups, as Members. The duties and functions of MANCOM as well as the manner of conduct of their meetings are specified in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 16-98 issued February 24, 1998 prescribes the policies and guidelines on the grant of honoraria sourced from Tax Computerization Project funds. The grant of honoraria, which ceased effective January 1998, will continue for: a) all members of Implementation Assistance Teams (IAT) created under various Revenue Special Orders (RSOs) and b) ITS trainors with specific assignments under various RSOs.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 17-98 issued February 24, 1998 prescribes the general policies in the allocation of audio-visual equipment which are part of the BIR -Tax Computerization Project funded by World Bank Loan. The allocation of said equipment will be based on the needs of the office and the availability of the resources, as determined by MANCOM. The said equipment will be allocated to the offices and cannot be brought by the head of office upon transfer of assignment.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 18-98 issued February 25, 1998 prescribes the guidelines and procedures in the institutionalization of all projects under OPERATIONS, MOST and SPIRIT created under RMO No. 3-96. All functions and activities performed by the different transformation projects on an ad hoc basis will be transferred permanently to the appropriate Services of the Bureau, and will be included in their respective Statement of Functions. Transition will be for a period of one (1) month starting from February 25 up to March 25, 1998, except for systems which have not yet been fully accepted.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 19-98 issued March 3, 1998 prescribes the guidelines and procedures in the retrieval and processing of tax returns for the validation of taxpayers' information on the current return against taxpayer information filed prior to rollout. The type of returns to be retrieved in relation to the processing of Returns Processing System (RPS) Suspense Accounts are specified in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 20-98 issued March 4, 1998 prescribes the policies and procedures for monitoring and evaluating the performance of BIR offices vis-à-vis the eight (8) BIR Institutional Performance Measures (IPM). These IPMs are: (i) Tax Collected, (ii) Taxpayer Base Index, (iii) Customer Satisfaction Index, (iv) Process Vitality Index, (v) Tax Cost Index, (vi) Training Index, (vii) Employee Satisfaction Index and (viii) Information Quality Index. All Revenue District Officers (RDOs) and Division Chiefs are required to prepare their 1998 Performance Contract and 1998 Operational Plan based on the 1998 targets prescribed per IPM. In order to monitor the accomplishment of BIR offices, Performance Report per applicable IPM and Activity Report will also be prepared monthly. Evaluation of performance will be done through the preparation by the Assistant Commissioners of an Annual Performance Report per assigned IPM, which will be used as source document by the Planning Division in the computation of the Overall Grade of BIR offices.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 21-98 issued March 5, 1998 prescribes the interim procedures in the handling and processing of the following 1998 tax returns pending the rollout of the CTRP enhancements: a) Donor's Tax Return (1800); b ) Estates Tax Return (1801); c) Documentary Stamps Tax Return (2000); d) Capital Gains Tax Return (1706); e) Monthly Remittance Return of Income Taxes Withheld (1601); and f) Quarterly Remittance Return of Final Income Taxes Withheld (1602).

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 22-98 issued March 6, 1998 prescribes the procedures in the preparation and monitoring of report on the number of registered taxpayers and stop-filers. Said report, which will be prepared by the Revenue District Officers, are based on the Taxpayer Record Update (TRU) data or the taxpayer ledger of the District Office.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 23-98 issued March 6, 1998 amends RMO No. 50-97 by clarifying the process for the validation of the Enhancement Deliverables under the BIR Tax Computerization Project (TCP), as well as defining further the roles and responsibilities of the concerned personnel. The procedures for user validation, including the classification of issues into major/minor are prescribed in attachment A of the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 24-98 issued March 10, 1998 amends RMO No. 24-94 by defining the new composition of the Inspection and Acceptance Committee in the National Office as follows: a) Chief, Fiscal Audit Division or his duly authorized representative, as Chairman; and b) Chiefs of the Procurement Division and General Service Division or their duly authorized representatives, as members. The newly reconstituted committee will discharge the same functions as that of the defunct committee created under RMO No. 21-83.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 25-98 issued March 13, 1998 defines the policies for the amendment/clarification of RMO No. 8-98 relative to the Corporate Stock Documentary Stamp Tax (DST) Program. The deadline for the filing of BIR Form Nos. 2000 and 2000-A by existing corporations for Documentary Stamp Tax on subscribed shares of stock is extended until March 31, 1998. All existing corporations that have already paid their DST on issuances of subscribed shares of stock in full must file BIR Form No. 2000-A, together with the evidences of payment, with the Revenue District Office where the corporation is registered. In the event that none of the required evidences of payment can be submitted, the corporations may still file BIR Form 2000-A provided that a Sworn Statement attesting to the circumstances that led to the absence of any evidence of payment of DST is attached.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 26-98 issued March 24, 1998 prescribes the policies and procedures on the establishment of the inquiry handling facility for the BIR Web Page which is accessible on both the Intranet and Internet. The Taxpayer Assistance Service (TAS) will serve as the center for information dissemination and taxpayer inquiries, and will be considered as the end-user of the Web Page design developed by the Web Page Team. As such, TAS will receive and respond to all queries coursed through the BIR Web Page. The Legal Service will review all responses received over the Web Page referred by the TAS, in terms of conformity with the provisions of Section 270 of the Tax Code regarding confidentiality of taxpayer information. The Legal Service will provide TAS with the appropriate clearance for the posting of any information on the Web Page not later than 5 working days from receipt of responses/information referred by the TAS for review.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 27-98 issued March 25, 1998 prescribes the audit policies and procedures of the 1998 Enforcement Audit Program which covers 1996 and 1997 Income, Value-Added Tax, Percentage, Withholding and other tax returns and liabilities of the following sectors/industries: a) banks, insurance and other financial intermediaries; b) international carriers; c) telecommunication companies; d) pharmaceutical companies; e) top 1,500 large taxpayers as may be identified by the Large Taxpayers Division; f) Board of Investments, Export Development Authority and Philippine Export Zone Authority registered companies; g) exempt organizations pursuant to Sec. 30 of the Tax Code; h) SBMA and CDC enterprises; i) oil companies; j) breweries, distillers, rectifiers and compounders; k) cigarette manufacturers; l) cases covered by confidential information filed by informers; and m) tax fraud cases developed by the Tax Fraud Division and those elevated to it by the Regional Offices. All cases falling under said classification will be automatically excluded from the coverage of the 1998 Audit Program by the Assessment Service for Revenue District Offices. Taxpayers covered by the Enforcement Audit Program who availed of the Voluntary Assessment Program will not be included unless the availment was found to be substantially deficient by the Voluntary Assessment Program Committee.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 28-98 issued April 1, 1998 amends RMO No. 3-98 by amending the Alphanumeric Tax Codes (ATCs) on fringe benefits paid to supervisors/managers by a corporation (from WC360 to WI360) and on informer's rewards for persons instrumental in the discovery of violators of the Tax Code/discovery and seizure of smuggled goods (from WI410 to WC410 if reward is paid to a corporation and WI410 if reward is paid to an individual).

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 29-98 issued April 2, 1998 specifies the scope and schedule of the second set of CTRP enhancements which will be released to all Revenue District Offices on March 31, 1998. Said enhancements have a direct effect on BIR Forms 1601/1743W (Monthly Remittance of Income Taxes Withheld) and concern the following: a) tax on fringe benefits and royalties; b) tax on dividends paid to individuals; c) tax on non-resident aliens; d) tax on informer's rewards; and e) changes in tax base for exemption of prizes. The guidelines on the dissemination of information relative to the enhancements are specified in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 30-98 issued April 7, 1998 amends RMO No. 43-94 relative to the security control measures in the Accountable Forms Division. The vaults in the Division will be opened only in the presence of the Chief, Accountable Forms Division, the Section Chief in charge of the vault and the Head Revenue Executive Assistant of the Internal Affairs Service or his duly authorized representative.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 31-98 issued April 8, 1998 amends RMO No. 21-84 by defining the new composition of the Committee on Disposal of Specialized Accountable Forms in the Regional Offices. The Committee will now be composed of the following: a) the Assistant Regional Director, as Chairman; and b) Chiefs of the Finance Division and Administrative Division, as members. The BIR Regional Auditor and the Chief, Accountable Forms Division will be informed and requested to witness every disposal of obsolete, cancelled or spoiled specialized accountable forms in the Regional Offices. The Committee will proceed with the disposal of said accountable forms in accordance with the existing COA rules and regulations, except in the case of documentary stamps which will first undergo analysis by the BIR Laboratory in the National Office.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 32-98 issued April 16, 1998 prescribes the guidelines and procedures in the rollout of the Accountable Forms System (AFS) at the AFS Pilot and Non-Pilot Sites, as well as provides the manual procedures to be followed at the AFS Non-Pilot sites in handling request, allotment, issuance, transfer of location, physical inventory, disposal and reconciliation of accountable forms data.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 33-98 issued April 21, 1998 amends certain portions of RMO No. 18-98 pertaining to the institutionalization of all projects under OPERATIONS, MOST and SPIRIT. Since the Transformation Committee (TRANSCOM) and the Management Committee (MANCOM) have the same composition, the TRANSCOM will no longer hold its regular meeting every Wednesday. Instead, issues concerning transformation projects which cannot be resolved by a Group or those requiring interface with another Group(s) will be included in the agenda for discussion in the MANCOM meeting every Monday.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 34-98 issued April 27, 1998 prescribes the guidelines and procedures to standardize encoding of taxpayer data regarding the following: a) Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN); b) business/registered name; c) taxpayer name; and d) taxpayer's address. For uniformity and to eliminate errors that cause suspension of returns, standard abbreviations were prescribed in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 35-98 issued April 29, 1998 prescribes the policies, guidelines and procedures on the issuance of clearance (whether for the National Office, Regional Office or Revenue Data Center) of retiring officials, as well as those who resign or are affected by transfer, or are otherwise separated from the service. All BIR personnel are required to submit clearance for the following scenarios: a) automatic/optional retirement; b) resignation; c) death; d) transfer to another government agency; e) transfer by Travel Order; f) maternity leave; and g) vacation leave of 30 calendar days or more. The signatories for the clearances are specified in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No 36-98 issued April 29, 1998 amends RMO No. 17-98 relative to the allocation of audio-visual equipment made to the Public Information and Education Division of which, 13 would be transferred to the Policy and Planning Service for use by the Corporate Marketing Division in handling the media functions of the Bureau.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 37-98 issued April 30, 1998 prescribes the guidelines and procedures in the processing of BIR monthly collection reports of computerized Revenue District Offices (RDOs) and the comparative year-to-date collection report of all RDOs which are required by the Department of Finance every 12th day and 22nd day of the month, respectively. Specified in the Order, are the policies and procedures on the: i) data/report template preparation to be accomplished by the Information Systems Development Service and Information Systems Operations Service; ii) data consolidation, report preparation and report template distribution to be accomplished by the Revenue Accounting Division; and iii) report preparation and transmittal to be accomplished by the RDOs.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 38-98 issued May 4, 1998 amends RMO No. 11-98 by extending the period for the investigation of Value-Added Tax (VAT) returns from 30 to 60 days. In relation thereto, a Revenue Officer is required to finish a case and submit the report of investigation within 60 days from the date of issuance of the Letter of Authority.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 39-98 issued May 18, 1998 creates an Inspection and Acceptance Committee (IAC) in every Revenue Data Center (RDC) to be composed of the following: a) Head, Quality Assurance Department or his duly authorized representative, as Chairman; and b) Head, Administrative Department or his duly authorized representative and a representative of the requisitioning unit, as members. Functions to be performed by the IAC-RDC includes inspection and acceptance of all deliveries of the items shown in the Purchase Order, Letter Order/Contract/Job Order initiated at the RDC, among others.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 40-98 issued May 18, 1998 prescribes the guidelines and procedures in the handling of Taxpayer Record Update (TRU) validation and upload of suspense records. The Information Systems Operations Service (ISOS) will be responsible in uploading to the Integrated Tax System (ITS) database the encoded TRU Phase I records (for individual and non-individual business entities) at least 60 days before the scheduled rollout, and TRU Phase II records (for pure compensation earners) 30 days after rollout. The Revenue Data Centers, on the other hand, will print the suspense report files sent by ISOS via File Transfer Protocol (FTP) and transmit the generated suspense reports to the Revenue District Office concerned for resolution.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 41-98 issued May 22, 1998 specifies that only the Chief or Assistant Chief of the Division is authorized to sign the Requisition and Issue Voucher (RIV-Gen. Form No. 3) in requesting for accountable forms, which have to be duly approved by their respective Assistant Commissioners (ACIR). Heads of Special Teams created for special projects who will requisition Letters of Authority and other accountable forms will submit an RIV signed by the ACIR/Deputy Commissioner directly supervising their activities. Finance officers of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Revenue Attaches requesting for Official Receipts (BIR Form 25.24) will sign the RIV which will be approved by the Chief, International Tax Affairs Division.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 42-98 issued May 28, 1998 prescribes the policies, guidelines and procedures on the processing of payment data from Accredited Agent Banks (AABs) under non-computerized Revenue District Offices (RDOs) using the Limited Bank Data Entry System (LBDES). The modified LBDES program will be adopted by AABs under the 22 non-computerized Metro Manila RDOs between June and July, 1998. The Administrative Division of the Regional Offices concerned will assume custody and safekeeping of the LBDES documents transmitted by the Information Systems Operation Service. They will also be responsible and accountable for taxpayer's requests for certification of authenticity.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 43-98 issued May 28, 1998 establishes the SPIRIT Mass Rollout Manual as the reference document concerning guidelines and procedures pertaining to the mass rollout of the Integrated Tax System at different BIR offices. The Manual, which supersedes RMO Nos. 51-97 and 66-97, will be updated as may be necessary by the Information Planning and Quality Service-Quality Assurance Sector.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 44-98 issued June 1, 1998 prescribes the policies and procedures relative to the security requirements of the BIR in the technical computing environment. The Order provides the guidelines in reporting and evaluating cases of security violations, the policies for the imposition of sanctions for such cases and the areas from which security violation(s) may arise. The penalties for infractions, classified as grave, less grave and light offenses, are likewise specified in the Order.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 45-98 issued June 3, 1998 prescribes the policies, guidelines and procedures on the availment of compromise and/or abatement of tax liabilities for assessment notices issued on or before April 30, 1998. The Revenue Regional Approval Committee created under RMO No. 45-93, with the Regional Director as its Chairman, is authorized to settle by way of compromise delinquent accounts covering 1997 and prior taxable years, the basic taxes of which DO NOT EXCEED FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND PESOS (P500,000). Provided, that the collection in each case will not be lower than the minimum percentages prescribed in the Order, to wit: a) 50% of the basic tax for assessment notices issued before January 1, 1997, including assessment of P 5,000 and below and b) 100% of the basic tax for assessment notices issued from January 1, 1997 to April 30, 1998 and for preliminary assessment notices issued by Assessment Division of the Regional Office on or before April 30, 1998.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 46-98 issued June 3, 1998 amends RMO No. 73-94 by revising the format and procedures in the preparation of the "Report on Drastic Changes in Collection Performance" (BIR Form No. 1771). The Revenue District Officer (RDO) shall accomplish the revised BIR Form No. 1771 on a monthly basis and shall submit it not later than the tenth working day of each month to the Regional Director. The Regional Director, in turn, shall prepare the regional analysis of the drastic change in collection of his/her region based on BIR Form No. 1771 submitted by the RDOs, and shall submit the said report to the Statistics Division not later than the 15th working day of each month.

REVENUE MEMORANDUM ORDER No. 47-98 issued June 4, 1998 prescribes the policies and guidelines in the use of the Taxpayer Record Update (TRU) Manual which shall be the primar