Senators nix P3-M cap for tax-exempt housing
Photo from Sen. JV Ejercito’s Facebook
Senators voted to reject a proposal to raise the ceiling for the sale of houses and lots to be tax exempt to P3 million, according to Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito.
Ejercito, proponent of raising the amount of tax-exempt sale of houses and lots to P3 million, said his colleagues stuck to the original provision of the proposed Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) fixing the ceiling for tax-exempt sale of houses and lots at P2 million or less.
The proposed TRAIN would exempt from taxes sale of houses outside Metro Manila worth a maximum of P2 million.
Desired result
Ejercito said he proposed an amendment to delete the phrase “outside of Metro Manila” from the TRAIN bill “since my desired result is to see the redevelopment of Metro Manila.”
“The reality nowadays is that urban employees prefer to live near their workplace due to grueling traffic,” said Ejercito, former San Juan City mayor, who chairs the Senate committee on urban planning, housing and resettlement.
“In Metro Manila, there remains several areas that may be developed for vertical housing,” he said.
He said raising the ceiling for tax-exempt housing sales to P3 million would help in his advocacy for on-site or near-city resettlement programs for illegal settlers.
Exempting housing sales worth P3 million from taxes, he said, would help “more families acquire their own houses at affordable and decent costs.”
Policy direction
Sen. Edgardo “Sonny” Angara Jr., chair of the Senate ways and means committee which is deliberating on TRAIN, said fixing the ceiling for tax-exempt housing sales to P2 million was in line with President Duterte’s policy direction of spreading economic growth and opportunities outside Metro Manila.
Angara said low cost houses, worth P2 million or less, outside Metro Manila would continue to be exempted from value-added tax (VAT) under the Senate version of TRAIN.
The original proposal of the Department of Finance sought to remove VAT exemption from sales of socialized housing units worth P450,000 or less to broaden VAT base.
