The month of January is one of the busiest months, in so far as taxes are concerned. It is the month when businesses need to process and renew business permits with the local government units where they are doing business. Part of that is the payment of the local business taxes due for the year. This will allow them to continue operating within the jurisdiction of the LGU where permit is granted.
There are experiences in the past wherein the LGUs would refuse to issue business permits simply on the ground that the concerned taxpayers have alleged taxes due for previous years as a result of an investigation conducted by the LGU—even if the same is being contested by the taxpayer. In other words, the payment of an assessment is imposed as a requirement for the issuance of a business permit.
Oftentimes, the affected taxpayer would reluctantly pay for fear of losing business simply because of the non-issuance of a permit.