In this tech-driven world, financial enforcers should always be a step ahead of the usual thieves in government and raiders of the state’s coffers.  

When President Aquino took his oath at the Quirino Grandstand on June 15, 2010, he and promised an administration that would be free of corruption under a good governance framework he dubbed Tuwid na Daan.

However, nearly a year and a half into his term, the fight against tax evaders and smugglers remains an uphill battle.

Tax evasion is usually a two-way crime made in connivance with insiders at the Bureau of Internal Reenue.

Officials from both the BIR and the Bureau of Customs and from the Department of Finance’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service told a major broadsheet that the schemes of tax evaders and smugglers have become more sophisticated and as such more difficult – but surely not impossible — to fight.

RIPS executive director Romeo Tomas said the modus operandi of public officials have become more sophisticated as anti-graft agencies have also become tougher.

Topping the list of schemes used by corrupt officials is the formation of dummies. Often these individuals set up corporations, law offices, and third persons for their properties so that they do not have to declare these properties in their statement of assets,  liabilities, and net worth.

Those who declare their properties in their SALNs grossly undervalue them, which is another common scheme.

RIPS has found out that it was common for public officials to declare only a portion of their real estate properties in their SALN or devalue them.

Wire transfers and money laundering are also common schemes used by public officials to conceal their wealth offshore.

The methods of tax evasion are also more sophisticated now, said BIR Deputy Commissioner for Legal and Inspection Group Estela Sales.

Sales said the BIR is trying to fight tax evasion every step of the way through the agency’s Run After Tax Evaders program.

One common method of tax evasion is the non-issuance of receipts — the simplest form of evasion – through which the seller or business establishment is able to reduce the volume of declared sales as well as the tax liability.

Another common scheme is under-declaration of sales and over declaration of expenses so that the business would be able to deduct more through input value-added tax.

The more glaring form of tax evasion, Sales said, is the non-filing of returns, one of the easiest forms of dodging taxes.

Another is the non-registration of the business.

More sophisticated forms non-payment of taxes include the use of non-existent suppliers. Some businesses use smuggled raw materials for their supplies to save on costs.

Indeed, when the crooks get smart, the government should get smarter.

It doesn’t get any simpler than that.