Bill extending estate tax amnesty availment period gets final Senate nod
MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill that seeks to extend the period of the availment of the estate tax amnesty.
Voting 23-0-0, the chamber approved Senate Bill No. 2208, which sets the period to avail the estate tax amnesty from June 15, 2021 until June 14, 2023.
The measure seeks to amend Republic Act No. 11213 of the Tax Amnesty Act giving taxpayers a one-time opportunity to settle estate tax obligations through an estate tax amnesty program that gives reasonable tax relief to estates with outstanding estate tax liabilities.
“Unfortunately, just 10 months after the law was enacted—in March 2020—a global pandemic hit us, disrupting our daily lives, sending us into lockdowns, and affecting our ways of doing business,” Senator Pia Cayetano, who sponsored the bill as chairperson of the Senate ways and means committee, earlier said.
“Due to the strict travel restrictions and stalled economic activities in the time of COVID-19, many Filipinos have been unable to file their tax returns and settle their tax obligations. And the community quarantines imposed in different parts of the country prevented taxpayers from availing of the tax amnesty mandated by law,” she added.
The law, which was signed in 2019, gave two years after its enactment for taxpayers to settle their estate tax obligations or only until June 14 this year.
Tax amnesty is granted to the estate of decedents who died on or before December 31, 2017, with or without prior assessments, whose estate taxes have remained unpaid or have accrued as of that same date.
The House of Representatives approved its own version of the bill in September last year.
