Angara files compromise tax cut bill

Senator Sonny Angara. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Sen. Sonny Angara on Friday filed a compromise bill that proposes to adjust the levels of taxable income, taking inflation into account, instead or lowering tax rates across-the-board.

“Middle-income earners, who were mostly taxed at 25 percent in 1997, are now pushed into the top tax bracket at 32 percent together with the billionaires of our country because of our outdated tax system. Is this equitable and progressive? Clearly, it is not,” said Angara, chair of the Senate ways and means committee.

His bill would retain the seven tax brackets, but adjust the amounts for each one.

For instance, bracket one under the current tax code imposes a fixed tax rate of 5 percent for those earning not more than P1,000.