Cureless

Two weeks ago, during Baby Bjorn’s baptism (my new inaanak), I mentioned about getting a PSP for my youngest sister who just graduated from high school. She had been hinting about that since December. I wouldn’t dare think mention about it if I didn’t have the amount to purchase one.

Last Sunday, the night after our company outing at Canyon Cove (Nasugbu, Batangas), I decided to prepare my ITR (Income Tax Return). Fluffy and I have been on a dilemma last week since we had no idea how to combine the taxes withheld by our two employers in 2007. Our BIR Form 2316 from our previous company wasn’t released on time so we had to compute our ITR ourselves instead of letting our current company do it for us.

I asked advice from our finance department and I was quite relieved to hear that it’s alright if the tax withheld by the previous company wasn’t included in the computation for the current. Anyway, we will consolidate them in our Form 1700. But the financial manager said something like there’s something we had to pay upon filing our ITR.

During the two years that I’ve worked in the Philippine Army, I never paid a single cent when filing for my ITR (and I usually request my peers to do it for me). So I was aghast, not to mention, alarmed when the amount of tax I have yet to pay the government came out from my computations.

Twelve thousand three hundred ninety four pesos and eighty one centavos.

Did I mention I was planning to buy a PSP?

Good thing Fluffy and I are far from being labeled as spendthrifts so it wasn’t hard to fund the amount.

But I really find it hard to accept that I’d be paying such amount for something that wasn’t my fault. If only the company released the BIR Form 2316 on time. Honestly, if it wasn’t for Fluffy (who was still positive despite the unexpected thing), I could have evaded paying the dues.

And so yesterday, during our lunch break, Fluffy filed both of our ITRs and paid our dues at the bank inside Makati Atrium.

So much for trying to be a law-abiding citizen.