MANILA, Philippines — Albay Rep. Joey Salceda on Friday said that the Ease of Paying Taxes (EOPT) bill will become law within two months.
Salceda, who chairs the House Committee of Ways and Means, delivered the promise after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. certified the EOPT bill as a priority measure during his second State of the nation address (Sona).
“I expect EOPT to become law this year; in fact, maybe in the next two months,” Salceda said in a speech to officials of the Bureau of Internal Revenue in Legazpi City.
“The President wants a system that is easy for all, and he is open to new ideas on how to do it,” Salceda added.
Salcada said that Senator Sherwin Gatchalian and other senators should be done with their version of the bill within next week.
The Albay lawmaker named the salient features of the law, which included allowing a taxpayer classification wherein small and medium taxpayers have fewer conditions.
“We will ease compliance requirements. Under that, we will remove payment of annual registration fee, the requirement of audit prior to closure of a business establishment or retirement from practice of profession, and the requirement to secure an Authority to Print Receipts. We will also ease the penalty imposition on non-medium and non-large taxpayers,” said Salceda.
According to the lawmaker, the government will also shift to an accrual-based tax system with the invoice as the key documentation for value added tax transactions, which will have faster tax refunds.
“Finally, we will institute a risk-based audit policy for the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), so that the agency is not trigger-happy with issuing Letters of Authority,” he said.