{"id":7041,"date":"2020-06-04T19:42:43","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T19:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=7041"},"modified":"2026-04-24T04:42:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T07:42:47","slug":"pogos-philippines-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/pogos-philippines-tax","title":{"rendered":"Fewer than 10 POGOs approved to reopen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many applications in the Philippines have been denied or stalled, in some cases because of unpaid tax on workers&#8217; salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Philippines.-&nbsp; The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has said it has approved very few Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to resume operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to Manila Bulletin, the BIR POGO Task Force said fewer than 10 POGOs had been given the green light and that many applications had been denied or temporarily shelved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the applications were denied because of outstanding payments due on the final withholding tax for 2020 due from the salaries of foreign workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Applicants are also required to submit a notarised promise to settle all debts incurred up to 2019, at a time when the Philippines&#8217; senators are pushing <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/drilon-pogos-covid\">for outstanding POGO taxes to fund a Covid-19 response<\/a><\/em><\/strong> programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The task force said it was not only the BIR that imposed stringent guidelines for the reopening, but also the <strong><em>Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation<\/em><\/strong> (Pagcor) and the Inter-Agency Task Force for Infectious Diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are some 220 registered POGOs in the Philippines, employing more than 100,000 foreign staff, mostly Chinese, the Manila Bulletin reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <strong><em>BIR<\/em><\/strong> said it would issue letters of authority (LAs) if the task force found evidence of misdeclaration, particularly on the payment of the higher 25 per cent FWT (income tax) due on the salaries of foreign workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many applications in the Philippines have been denied or stalled, in some cases because of unpaid tax on workers&#8217; salaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"The Philippine Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has approved fewer than 10 Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) to resume operations, with numerous applications denied or stalled due to outstanding tax liabilities, particularly final withholding tax on foreign workers' salaries. This stringent regulatory environment, also enforced by Pagcor and the Inter-Agency Task Force for Infectious Diseases, highlights ongoing compliance challenges for the POGO sector and impacts potential government revenue for COVID-19 response.","focusai_entities":"Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor), Inter-Agency Task Force for Infectious Diseases, Manila Bulletin","focusai_location":"Philippines, Manila","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (1.0), operator_casino (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.7), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.8), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO Tax Resolution","query":"What is the BIR's projected timeline for resolving outstanding POGO tax liabilities and facilitating operational resumptions?"},{"label":"POGO Regulatory Impact","query":"How will the stringent inter-agency regulatory compliance requirements impact the long-term viability and market structure of the Philippine offshore gaming sector?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[439,158,16333],"tags":[128,15789,1206],"class_list":["post-7041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-philippines","tag-pogos","tag-tax"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7041"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777018276,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7041\/revisions\/777018276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}