House OKs tax exemption for election servers

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed on third and final reading a bill that would provide tax exemption to the honoraria and other benefits of election servers such as members of the Board of Election Inspectors (BEIs).

Voting 202-0-0, the House approved House Bill No. 9652 that would provide income taxation exemption to compensation of BEIs and other election personnel, who are mostly public school teachers, for serving in the national and local elections.

If passed into law, the bill would amend the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 to exclude the honoraria and allowances of election servers from the computation of gross income.

House tax chief Rep. Joey Salceda, one of the authors of the bill, said foregone revenue due to the measure was “very reasonable.”

Citing data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec), Salceda said taxes withheld for the 2019 National and Local Elections amounted to P56.8 million.

“Considering both the risks election workers take, the relatively small size of their compensation for such an important function, and the reasonableness of the tax foregone, this proposal does not pose serious threats to our revenue strength,” he said.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro, a primary author of the bill, urged the Senate to immediately pass its version of the measure.