QC gives tax credit to property owners supportive of socialized housing

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The local government of Quezon City will provide tax credits to those who have dutifully paid their real property and socialized housing taxes in return for their help to the city’s housing programs for the underprivileged.

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte said the local government hopes the incentive would encourage more property owners to regularly pay their taxes.

“The tax credit is our way of thanking our real property taxpayers who have become our partners in building homes for our less fortunate citizens,” Belmonte said Thursday in a statement.

“Through this, we hope to encourage more real property owners to regularly pay their taxes so they can also contribute to our housing programs for the poor,” she added.

Under the city’s ordinance Socialized Housing Tax (SHT), the local government has imposed an additional one-half percent (0.5%) tax on properties (land) with an assessed value amounting to more than P100,000.00.

The fees collected were then used to purchase and develop land and to build and improve socialized housing facilities.

City Assessor Sherry Gonzalvo noted all SHT over the past five years should be complete and paid in order to qualify for the tax credit.

Gonzalvo added QC’s Information Technology Development Office will work on a program that automatically computes the tax payments and deducts the tax credit from the total amount due, in line with its compliance to the Ease of Doing Business Act.

Edited by JPV