12/02/2026
OPEN LETTER TO THE BIR
To the Bureau of Internal Revenue,
I write this with a heavy heart — and with a frustration that has been building for years. I am a small business owner, one of the many who wake up before sunrise and go home long after everyone else is asleep. I am someone who has sacrificed time, money, health, and even family moments just to keep a business alive in this country I love.
But lately, it feels like you are slowly taking the life out of us.
We built our businesses with hope — hope that hard work would be enough, hope that honesty would be rewarded, hope that we could survive despite rising costs and endless challenges. But every time a new requirement comes out, every time we are asked for documents we’ve already submitted, every time a penalty arrives without explanation, that hope dims a little more.
You may not see it from your desks, but on the ground, we are breaking.
We are the ones covering salaries even when sales are down.
We are the ones comforting staff when they’re worried about their jobs.
We are the ones borrowing money just to keep the doors open.
We are the ones choosing between expanding or simply surviving.
And instead of support, we are met with fear — fear of being penalized for forms we never understood, fear of inspections that feel more like threats, fear that one mistake, even unintentional, could cost us everything we worked for.
We are not billion-peso companies with accountants and lawyers at arm’s reach.
We are mothers, fathers, breadwinners — people who fight to stay afloat.
We pay our taxes because we want to help the country grow.
But must it really feel like we are being punished for trying?
Do you know how it feels to be drowning in requirements while trying to run a business?
Do you know how it feels to fear opening a letter from the BIR because you already assume it’s another penalty?
Do you know how it feels to spend hours in line, only to be told you filled out the wrong form — again?
We are not asking to be exempt from taxes.
We are asking for mercy.
For understanding.
For humanity.
We dream of a BIR that can see the difference between honest small business owners and those who abuse the system. We dream of a process that guides instead of terrifies, that mentors instead of punishes, that treats us like partners — not targets.
Small businesses are the backbone of this nation.
But we cannot carry the weight forever if the very system meant to regulate us is also suffocating us.
This is our plea:
Help us survive.
Help us grow.
Help us keep believing that building a business in the Philippines is still worth it.
Because right now, many of us are losing that belief.
Credit to: Small Business Owner PH
