Estimating Industry Benchmarks for the Value-Added Tax

In this article, the author outlines the coverage and structure of the Philippines' value-added tax (VAT) on goods and services and discusses the problems in its administration as well as indicators of inefficiency, low effort and evasion that appear to be growing even worse. Making use of the national input-output tables, she constructs industry benchmarks for the VAT to aid the Bureau of Internal Revenue in its audit process--collections within an industry which fall notably short of the benchmark could act as a sort of automatic trigger for government investigation and in the process reduce leakages. Before this can happen, however, industries should be defined to a greater degree to ensure an appropriate level of homogeneity within a given industry category.