Cebu City’s school and hospital tax campaign may be reinstituted
The newly reelected mayor of Cebu City, Mayor Michael Rama, wishes to revisit the agglomeration of franchise and business taxes from hospitals and schools.
It is quoted from him that “The matter of franchise tax, scholarship and the taxes which may be due from hospitals and schools shall be addressed through a winnable and expedient solution”. He also emphasized that he has no interest in mocking the public, but he will accumulate taxes contentiously.
“We might have to sue some people. There are a lot of contentious matters,” explained Rama in relation to the franchise tax controversy.
He did not intricate on his statement but questioned, “Are they still giving to Pagtambayayong Foundation?”
Rama said he wants to pursue providing financial aid to senior citizens and persons with disabilities. He targets to provide senior citizens a cash allotment of P1,000 monthly by next year.
Rama demands for a comprehensive and serious meeting with the local government departments involved – Management Information Computer Service, City Treasurer’s Office, City Assessor’s Office and the business sector on the City’s tax collection, prior to thinking about fleshing out taxes to better nurse the public.
As to schools and hospitals executing business in their City, but who claim to be discharged from paying business taxes, Rama hinted of a possible compromise.
In 2007, Cebu Institute of Technology, Sacred Heart Hospital, Cebu Doctors’ University, Southwestern University, Cebu North General Hospital, Velez General Hospital and Cebu Doctors’ Hospital, lodged a suit to counter the City, hesitating to pay business tax.
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Additional tax means sub-quality communication
Additional tax levied to the telecommunications industry has a big impact towards the investors as well as the masses.
The telecom sector complained against the government on the five percent (5%) added tax slapped to their services. For nine years, they contribute more than Rs 510 billion to the government, which considers them to be a cash cow.
In India, telecom taxes had gone up to 10.3 percent, Bangladesh 15% and Pakistan 41.5%. This said increase would eventually affect the sector’s expansion plans and therefore compromise the quality of their services.
The tax collection goal of Rs 2.475 billion, if fulfilled, could actually reduce the means of communication. Should taxes go up, the telecom sector would force themselves to increase rates on their services, which may lead to wealthier people to conveniently afford them.
This could otherwise affect sales of mobile phones and mobile applications which may eventually decrease by half. Thus the government unilaterally imposed a sales tax to reduce the budget deficit on 3G auction licenses.
The lower-income sector argued that they have lost their chance to update their communication tools, saying the added tax is more on opposition, especially to the business sector, for not being able to maximize their profit-making.
This short-sighted decision does increase their burdens, they said, and adds to the problems of the telecom sector and hurting the reputation of the PML-N.
Despite all odds, Pakistanis still experience affordable call rates in the entire region. However, the days of affordable communications may seem to be over, and might lead them to get back to traditional means.
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BIR: Nobody is an exception against tax evasion
Politicians and wealthy personalities are not exempted to pay their fair share of taxes to the government.
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner Kim Henares emphasized in the course of criticism that the BIR has gone cheating on asking the small-time individuals to pay taxes and getting the rich people away from any tax obligations.
Henares also addressed this leakage towards self-employed and professional workers who are not giving up their financial obligation to the government.
The Professional Regulations Commission hereby showed that there were 3 million registered professionals, among them doctors and lawyers who earned more than their waged worker counterparts.
Taxpayers remitting their shares fairly would have had a big impact to the progress of the country and would be able to reach a collection goal of Php 768.3 billion, 62.7 percent of BIR’s total collection goal (Php 1.225 trillion) for this year.
To counter this problem, the government plans to enhance the audit process through the use of technology and information-based solutions. These would help to identify the country’s taxpayers which are at high-risk of non-compliance.
It also intends to improve information linkages with other government agencies through statistical analysis.
If all are traced reasonably, it would be a good implication that the country tends to boost its revenue collection for the implementation of the local and national projects; giving rise to the law-abiding citizens and a fair status at all levels of the society.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, Tax Evasion, Tax Law Tags: