Tulfo tells BIR: Avoid double taxation for vloggers, ease tax for online sellers

FILE PHOTO Sen. Raffy Tulfo (Image from Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) should look into avoiding double taxation for vloggers and to ease taxes for online sellers, Senator Raffy Tulfo said on Wednesday.

Tulfo, who was a content creator himself, shared his experience that before receiving his check for revenues on YouTube, taxes were already deducted in the United States. Upon receipt of his check, he would pay another tax here in the Philippines.

“Double taxation ‘yan. Pero ok lang sa akin ‘yun. As a good citizen, kung kailangan ko talaga magbayad ng buwis, ishe-share ko ‘yung aking revenue para makatulong kahit papaano sa bayan,” he said on ANC Headstart.

(That is double taxation. But that is ok with me. As a good citizen, if I need to pay tax, I will share my revenue to help the country.)

“Pero kailangan talaga, meron tayong set na standard. Pag-aralan mabuti ng BIR kung maglatag ng maayos na sistema paano ba talaga ang magiging maayos na taxation para sa mga vloggers na hindi na magkaroon ng too much double taxation,” he added.

(But we need to have a set standard. The BIR should study how to lay out a system on how to collect taxes from vloggers without double taxation.)

Tulfo likewise sought a lesser tax for online sellers, saying they have already been taxed when buying raw materials for their products.

“Bumibili sila ng raw materials nila… du’n pa lamang nata-tax-an na sila sa VAT (value-added tax),” he noted.

(They buy raw materials. They are already taxed there through VAT.)

“Dapat pag-aralan mabuti ng BIR kung magkano ba dapat ang ita-tax. Siguro very minimum na lang,” he continued.

(The BIR should study how much tax should be collected from them. Maybe, just a minimum.)

The senator suggested that the government should prioritize collecting tax from big companies than individual online sellers.

Tulfo recently grilled the BIR and the Bureau of Customs for going after online sellers instead of big-time oil smugglers.

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