Since the BIR cannot catch the crooks who evade billions of pesos in taxes, they've become creative and started taxing the easy stuff -- like SMS text messaging -- and continue to take money from the purses of the lower and middle classes. These are the very people who have taxes mandatorily taken off their paycheck by their employers (and therefore making evasion unlikely), not to mention they have little to start with.

Now, the BIR is set on taxing the internet. This is something worth lobbying against. They want to slap on VAT, although exactly how is unclear. It will kill any hopes for local industries looking to expand their market by selling on the internet.