House amenable to P82,000 bonus tax cap

MANILA, Philippines — The House of Representatives will likely adopt the Senate version of the bill increasing to P82,000 the ceiling for tax exemption on bonuses for both the public and private sector.

In a press briefing on Thursday, House majority floor leader Neptali Gonzales II said the lower chamber has no problem with adopting the P82,000 ceiling in the Senate version as opposed to the P70,000 in the House version.

“Upon instruction of Speaker (Feliciano Belmonte Jr.), we have no problem with the Senate version. But it’s something that we have to study carefully. No problem to set a Senate version which sets a higher ceiling,” Gonzales said.

This means Congress may no longer need to set a bicameral conference to consolidate its versions of the bill.

House of Representatives. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Gonzales said the House leadership was hoping President Benigno Aquino III would still be amenable to a higher tax exemption ceiling even if the government revenue collection would be affected.

“Bababa lang nang kaunti ang collection. But at the end of the day, kailangan ng mga tao ito. Magtipid na lang tayo sa ibang areas,” Gonzales said.

The House version of the bill seeks to increase to P70,000 from the current P30,000 the tax exemption cap for bonuses, while the Senate version seeks to increase the ceiling to P82,000, amending for this purpose Section 32(B)(7)(E) of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997.

Both chambers of Congress approved their versions of the bill.

The tax exemption covers all bonuses, including 13th month pay and Christmas bonus.

If passed, the bill would not yet be implemented this year due to the time needed to draft the law’s implementing rules and regulations, Gonzales said.

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