Senate ratifies bicam report on tax amnesty

The Senate adopted and ratified Thursday the bicameral conference committee report on the bill seeking a general tax amnesty for all unpaid tax obligations, including estate taxes, general taxes, and delinquent accounts due for taxable year 2017 and prior years.

Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, sponsor of the bill, said the approval of the bill is another step in the long quest toward an efficient and equitable tax system. 

“Let it be known that this measure will overwhelmingly benefit the Filipino taxpayer, including the widow, widower or the children who can now easily settle the obligations of their deceased loved one’s estate,” he said.

He added the measure will also give the government, specifically the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs, an unprecedented opportunity to start anew, clean up their dockets, and focus on their main mandate of collecting the funds necessary to power our nation’s growth.

Through the measure, the government is expected to raise up to P41 billion which will be used to finance crucial infrastructure projects and augment appropriations needed for the social mitigating measures under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion or TRAIN law.

About P500 million will be used exclusively for establishing tax database.

The bill gives the taxpayers the option to submit either a Statement of Total Assets or a Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth, along with a general tax amnesty return, when availing of the amnesty.

Angara said the option will attract more Filipinos to avail of the amnesty and allow the government to increase collections.

He added the bicam panel has agreed to make the tax amnesty bill “pro-taxpayer” that would attract “ordinary citizens who have long wanted to come clean but feared prosecution to finally settle their arrears.”

For general tax amnesty, the bicam panel agreed that taxpayers would be given the option to choose the rate between 2 percent of total assets or 5 percent of net worth or a minimum tax.

“This will give taxpayers more flexibility, which would encourage them more to avail of the amnesty,” Angara said.

Taxpayers can also avail of a reprieve from all estate taxes, and instead pay 6 percent based on the decedent’s total net estate.

The bill also covers an amnesty on delinquencies. Taxpayers can avail of 40 percent of the basic tax for delinquencies and assessments which have become final and executory, 50 percent for cases subject of final and executory judgment by the courts, and 60 percent for those subject of pending criminal cases.

Taxpayers will be given a year from the issuance of the implementing rules and regulations to avail of the amnesty, except for estate tax amnesty where taxpayers will be given two years to avail. Discounts will be granted for early availers.

Those who avail of the amnesty program will be immune from payment of all taxes and the filing of civil, criminal, and administrative cases and penalties.

Any information and data provided shall be confidential and shall not be admissible as evidence in any proceeding. Also, the books of accounts and other records of the taxpayer for the years covered by the tax amnesty availed of shall not be examined by the BIR.

With tax evasion cases taking decades to be decided in clogged courts, with the expenses to investigate, prosecute and hear greater than the taxes sought to be paid, Angara said “an amnesty, in many instances, could yield bigger amounts than the prosecution route.”

He said that unlawful divulgence of tax amnesty return and supporting documents has corresponding penalties under the bill.

A fine of P150,000 and a maximum jail term of 10 years await violators from the private sector.

If the violation is committed by a government official or employee, the penalties are fine of up to P1 million, maximum jail term of 5 years, and perpetual disqualification from holding public office. — RSJ, GMA News