{"id":7873,"date":"2020-07-06T21:28:22","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T21:28:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=7873"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T06:53:16","slug":"bir-commissioner-continues-to-investigate-pogos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/bir-commissioner-continues-to-investigate-pogos","title":{"rendered":"BIR commissioner continues to investigate POGOs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The POGO Task Force is said to be working on calculating the final withholding tax firms owe for their foreign workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Philippines.- Bureau of  Internal Revenue (BIR) Deputy Commissioner for Operations Arnel Guballa has confirmed the authority will continue to investigate the unpaid debts of Philippine offshore gaming operators (POGOs) even if they leave the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liability was mentioned by Presidential authorities<\/a><\/em><\/strong> last week after the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) confirmed at least two POGOs were leaving the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guballa, who also heads the BIR<\/em><\/strong> POGO Task Force, said POGOs were seeking to avoid paying the 5 per cent franchise tax on their annual gross receipts and the final withholding tax (FWT) on foreign workers’ salaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said the task force is now concentrating efforts on investigating unpaid FWT because this is easier to calculate than the franchise tax \u2013 he said it was difficult to calculate POGO’s annual gross receipts because foreign players’ bets were collected by POGOs in different parts of the world, not by local service providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although BIR has eased restrictions<\/a><\/em><\/strong> for POGOs with tax debts to obtain permits to restart operations, PAGCOR<\/em><\/strong> confirmed that SunCity Group has closed its POGO operations in the Philippines and that Don Tencess Asian Solutions has asked to cancel its licence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are about 60 POGOs licensed to operate in the Philippines. They were ordered to shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic but some were allowed to reopen in May providing they did not have tax debts to settle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The POGO Task Force is said to be working on calculating the final withholding tax firms owe for their foreign workers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7875,"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) is intensifying efforts to collect unpaid taxes, specifically the final withholding tax (FWT) on foreign workers' salaries, from Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs), even as some exit the country. The BIR's POGO Task Force faces challenges in calculating the 5% franchise tax on gross receipts due to the global nature of POGO betting operations. This enforcement action follows the departure of key operators like SunCity Group and Don Tencess Asian Solutions, highlighting ongoing regulatory compliance issues within the sector.","focusai_entities":"Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Arnel Guballa, POGO Task Force, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR), SunCity Group, Don Tencess Asian Solutions","focusai_location":"Philippines","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.9), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.9), investor_analyst (0.9), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"POGO tax collection impact?","query":"What are the projected financial impacts of the BIR's intensified FWT collection efforts on the remaining licensed POGOs and the overall Philippine iGaming GGR?"},{"label":"Regulatory framework evolution?","query":"How might the challenges in calculating the POGO franchise tax influence future regulatory frameworks or tax methodologies for offshore gaming operations in the Philippines?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,158,16333],"tags":[128,15789,2895],"class_list":["post-7873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-slider-home","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-philippines","tag-pogos","tag-taxes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873","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=7873"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777008651,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7873\/revisions\/777008651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}