Bill extending estate tax amnesty deadline to 2025 lapses into law

MANILA, Philippines — A law extending the deadline of the estate tax amnesty until June 2025 lapsed into law on Tuesday, without President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's signature.

The tax amnesty program expired on June 14, but the freshly enacted Republic Act (RA) No. 11956 grants Filipinos an extension until June 14, 2025 to fulfill their estate tax obligations.

The law also extends the period of deaths covered to May 2022.

Congress approved the measure in May.

The initial deadline for estate tax amnesty applications, which was set on June 15, 2021, was extended by two years through RA 11569. This was enacted on June 30, 2021, amending the Tax Amnesty Act of 2019 or RA 11213.

Rep. Joey Salceda (Albay), principal author of the House measure of the law, estimates that up to one million Filipinos will benefit from the deadline extension, many of whom are still reeling from the financial effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It will benefit some 920,000 Filipino families who have unsettled estates, many of whom include the 610,054 agrarian reform beneficiaries recently released from debt by President Marcos’s New Agrarian Emancipation Act,” he said.

The law also allows Filipinos to file their estate tax amnesty applications electronically and reduces the number of required documents.

The ratified version of the bill also reduces the time for creating the implementing rules and regulations from 60 to 30 days. — Cristina Chi