Corporate tax freeloaders.(The Front)(tax evaders): An article from: Multinational Monitor
Valenzuela City Rep. Rexlon Gatchalian and Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño made this joint assertion after a tax official said a receipt should be issued for those selling goods worth upwards of P25.
Eastern promises: China wants to clamp down on tax evaders and tighten its accounting standards. What does this mean if you're doing business there?: An ... from: San Fernando Valley Business Journal
Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares, in making the proposal, had earlier said that the move will help document sales, making it easy for the government to monitor transactions.
The result, Henares said, is to make tax collections easier, helping boost government revenues and plug the swelling budget deficit that reached P196.7 billion in the first half of 2010.
However, the proposal was thumbed down by the two members of the Lower House. “It should go after the big system-loss clients, yung mga malalaking hindi nagbabayad ng buwis. Wag tayong magretail na pati yung maliliit na mamamayan na wala namang kasalanan sa budget deficit ay yun pa ang habulin natin," said Gatchalian.
(It should go after the big system-loss clients — the big ones who do not pay taxes. Let’s not go retail, going after the small folk who after all are not to blame for the budget deficit.)
The BIR was already on the right path at first when it filed tax evasion cases against pawnshop chain owner William Villarica, he said. “Alam naman natin yung pamasahe sa mga ganyan, even sa tricycle, kulang pa pambayad ng tumataas na presyo ng diesel. Ano pa ang maiiwan sa kanila kung bubuwisan natin sila," the lawmaker pointed out.
(We all know that income from fares like this, even with tricycles, are insufficient to pay for rising fuel costs. What will remain with them if we tax them?)
It would be a "mission impossible" to track down every single pedicab driver and ask them to produce receipts and pay taxes, he said. “I’m curious how she [Henares] will intend to tax pedicab drivers. How do you go about that?" Gatchalian asked. For his part, Casiño said that the ones to be taxed should be those driving SUV's (sport utility vehicles). Now is the right time for Congress to review the country’s taxation system, especially regarding the value added tax (VAT), Casiño said. “I think Congress in fact will have to revisit whether it will have to remove or exempt some of the basic utilities from the VAT para lang makatulong dun sa maliliit natin (so that it can help the poor)," he said.
“I guess these pedicab drivers and tricycle drivers will now have a new ally in Congress in the person of Mikey Arroyo," Casiño quipped.
He was referring to the son of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Juan Miguel, who was recently allowed to return to the House of Representatives by being accepted as first nominee of the party-list group Ang Galing Pinoy (AGP).
The young Arroyo, a former Pampanga representative, is supposed to represent security guards as AGP nominee. Casiño said: “Pwede siguro nila ilapit ang kanilang concern doon, tutal siya naman ang kinatawan ng mga drivers."
