Romero pushes tax amnesty bill

Rep. Michael Romero of 1Pacman party-list is pushing for amnesty to individual as well as corporate taxpayers’ liabilities covering due in 2015 and in previous years.

In a statement on Sunday, Romero said House Bill No. 3655 he had earlier filed would “increase revenues and to provide the foundation for an effective implementation of tax reforms by granting an amnesty on all unpaid internal revenue taxes imposed by the national government for taxable year 2015 and prior years.”

Romero said the bill was aligned with the Duterte administration’s proposed tax policy reform program aimed at bringing down personal and corporate income tax rates while slapping new or additional taxes on consumption.

“While this will result in decrease in revenue collections, my bill will complement the initiative as it will increase taxes that will be collected,” Romero said.

According to Romero, his bill, if passed into law, would allow any person or corporation who would avail of the tax amnesty to file a notice and tax amnesty return with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) together with a statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) as of Dec. 31, 2015.

Part of the amnesty is payment of tax penalties worth P50,000 or a flat rate of 5 percent, whichever is higher for individuals. As for corporations, the proposed penalty would be 5-percent flat rate or between P25,000 and P500,000.

Under the bill, “those who have availed of the tax amnesty will be granted immunity from the payment of taxes and civil, criminal or administrative penalties under the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 arising from their failure to pay any and all internal revenue taxes for 2015 and prior years,” Romero said.