MANILA, Jan. 31 -- A party-list lawmaker on Tuesday lauded the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) by making the filing of value-added tax (VAT) returns quarterly instead of monthly.

Senior Citizen Party-list Rep. Rodolfo Ordanes said the new BIR policy will simplify and make it easier for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to comply with tax filing requirements.

Ordanes said the BIR could continue making tax compliance easier with the creation of mobile app versions of the BIR tax form so that it would be more accessible for ordinary MSME owners without a college education to understand the ways how to complete and file their income and business taxes.

"Many MSME owners, including online sellers are unaware of the low tax rate 3...