Scrap tax on teachers’ poll honoraria — ACT

MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has called on the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to scrap the five percent tax to be imposed on the honoraria that teachers will receive for serving in the upcoming elections. ?

ACT members trooped to the BIR head office in Quezon City on Monday to protest what they described as an “unwarranted” collection of tax from teachers.

“The Duterte government through the BIR is hell-bent on exacting their share from ordinary Filipinos’ hard-earned money while it lets multimillion tax evaders get away,” ACT spokesperson Ruby Bernardo said. ?

“With no law to support it and only a misplaced use of authority, BIR was able to arbitrarily impose a tax on our meager compensation. This just goes to show how tax-hungry the Duterte administration is,” Bernardo added.?

Bernardo said the BIR failed to act on their petition to scrap the tax deduction on the election service honoraria, which they submitted in May last year in time with the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. ?

She also noted that some of the teachers who served in last year’s elections did not receive a refund of the poll honoraria tax imposed on them despite their eligibility. 

“Just as how diligent they were in exacting taxes from the low-salaried teachers, they were just as neglectful in paying back the taxes they wrongly collected. We cannot expect fair play and compassion from this agency. This further proves the justness of our demand to abolish the tax on poll service compensation,” Bernardo said.?

“We demand the immediate recall of the tax imposition to poll service compensation and the refund of all previous deductions by BIR,” she added. ?

The BIR last year said honoraria and allowances, regardless of the amount, are subject to income tax, except for those who receive an annual salary of P250,000 or less. 

The Commission on Elections last year promised that eligible teachers will receive their refund 15 days after the elections provided that they submitted the required documents. ?

Teachers not covered by the exemption were subjected to the five percent tax, or about P300 to P350 depending on the amount of their honoraria. 

Based on the Election Service Reform Act, P6,000 will be given as honoraria to those who will serve as chairpersons of electoral boards; P5,000 for members of electoral boards; P4,000 for Department of Education supervisor officials; and P2,000 for support staff.?Those who will render election services will also receive an additional P1,000 as travel allowance.

Other benefits include a minimum of five days service credit, legal indemnification package worth P50,000, medical assistance of up to P200,000 and election-related death benefit amounting to P500,000.