Government eyes tax amnesty in April 2019

MANILA, Philippines — The government is planning to postpone the implementation of its tax amnesty program to April next year, in time with the income tax filing season of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Wednesday.

In an interview, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the launch of the program may be delayed to next year due to the expected timing of the passage of Package 1B of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP) – of which tax amnesty is a part of.

He said the package is expected to be passed by Congress in the third quarter.

“If it’s (Package 1B) passed in the third quarter, the revenues will come in next year” Dominguez said.

“So most likely the amnesty will come in April. Also, we don’t want the taxpayer to be filing many things. Just one filing. File the amnesty and income tax at the same time,” he said.

Earlier, the finance chief said the government is targeting to implement the tax amnesty program within the year.

A proposal to implement a tax amnesty program is contained in House Bill 7105, filed by House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez, Majority Leader Rodolfo Fariñas, and House Ways and Means chairman Dakila Carlo Cua.

The measure aims to enhance revenue administration and tax collection by granting an amnesty on all unpaid internal revenue taxes imposed by the government.

Under the bill, taxpayers who wish to seek amnesty should pay a rate of eight percent of their net worth covering taxable year 2017, or P10,000 to P10 million – depending on their taxpayer classification – whichever is higher.

Aside from tax amnesty, Package 1B involves adjustments in the Motor Vehicle Users Charge and amendments in the Bank Secrecy Law.

These provisions were originally proposed under Republic Act 10963 or the TRAIN Law, but the final version of the law did not include these measures.