August 17th, 2022
House Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) says that the tax panel will pass all priority measures of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and the Department of Finance, having approved the Ease of Paying Taxes, Single-Use Plastics Tax, and the VAT on non-resident foreign digital service providers today.
“We will try to finish all PBBM’s and DOF’s priority bills this month. Hopefully, by next week, the House tax panel is done with everything, so we can proceed with our own tax measures as well as the administrative and oversight matters,” Salceda said.
The Ease of Paying Taxes Act will reduce documentary requirements, allow taxpayers to file their returns in any revenue district office, and remove the annual taxpayer registration fee. It will also institute a taxpayer bill of rights and designate a taxpayer advocate office.
“The bill aims to simplify tax filing and payment, and address burdensome tax compliance which affects our small and medium enterprises and turns off our investors. We hope that this could reduce the tax gap, estimated to be P909 billion in 2018,” Salceda said of the Ease of Paying Taxes Act.
“The EOPT seeks to segment taxpayers, to simplify the forms and requirements for small taxpayers; allow filing and paying of taxes to be portable; harmonize the documentation for substantiating VAT credits; and institutionalize a Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.”
The House tax panel also approved the VAT on nonresident digital service providers.
The measure seeks to level the playing field between traditional and digital businesses by clarifying the imposition of value-added tax (VAT) on DSPs.
“The measure also aims to strengthen tax compliance through simplified invoicing and registration requirements for VAT-registered nonresident DSPs. It follows House Bill No. 7425, which was approved on Third and Final reading in the 18th Congress, under the authorship and sponsorship of Rep. Sharon S. Garin and this representation,” Salceda said.
The panel also approved the P20-excise tax per kilogram of single-use plastics.
The measure “seeks to impose an excise tax of Twenty Pesos (P20.00) for every kilogram of plastic bag removed from the place of production or released from the custody of the Bureau of Customs. The allocation of the proceeds, which is estimated at P1 billion per year, will be used for the implementation of the solid waste management.”
The panel also created technical working groups for the Mining Fiscal Regime and the Passive Income and Financial Intermediaries Taxation Act (PIFITA), which the panel is expected to take up next week.
“We will finish the measures. That is our commitment to the President and to the House leadership. The committee will work harder than it did last Congress to meet the President’s clearly articulated SONA macrofiscal goals” Salceda said.