Scrap ‘cedula’–Henares

BIR Commissioner Kim Henares. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said on Thursday she favored the scrapping of the “cedula” or community tax certificate, saying it no longer had any use today.

“Actually, if there is going to be any policy reform, the first reform is to remove what is not needed. The cedula is something we do not need now,’’ Henares said at a news conference at the Department of Justice after charging model and actress Solenn Heussaff with tax evasion.

She noted that the cedula had been existing since the Spanish colonial era and that nowadays was not required in the notarization of documents because “everyone knows you can get a cedula anywhere.’’

Henares said the Bureau of Internal Revenue had been spending millions of pesos annually to print the cedula for local governments, but revenue from their sales did not get back to the agency or the national government.

“So if you want reforms, I think that is an area that is ripe for reform, you remove that,’’ she said. Christine O. Avendaño