Lower income taxes now

The confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (Courage) urges Congress to pass the proposed law seeking to revise the tax bracket system and lower individual income taxes—now!

We call on our solons to go beyond party affiliations and patronage politics. Our legislators should heed the need of the low-salaried workers and pass these tax reform measures before Congress formally adjourns in October this year.

While tax cuts do not replace our demand for a long-overdue national minimum wage of P16,000 monthly, these pieces of legislation would be a welcome relief. Cuts and lower tax rates would increase the purchasing power of both the private sector workers and the state’s 1.4 million employees.

The current tax system is oppressive enough and biased against the low-income workers who comprise the country’s main tax base. It is ironic that while big foreign and domestic businesses are granted tax exemptions, tax holidays and other incentives, the government leans more toward imposing additional taxes, such as raising the value added tax which is passed on to the consumers.

Beyond effective and efficient tax collection and administration—like going after the big tax evaders, nonpayers and smugglers—and, better yet, ridding the bureaucracy of influence peddlers from the Palace, the issue is elementary and basic in social justice: Those who receive more should pay more.

Last year, Courage members raised the red flag against taxes. Coupled with massive nationwide protests, we collectively filed a case at the Supreme Court against BIR Revenue Memorandum Order No. 23-2014 which taxes even nontaxable benefits. We also sought to adjust the exemption cap on taxable income for yearend bonuses. This led to the enactment of a law increasing the exemption cap from P30,000 to P82,000, which benefited both public and private workers.

The time is right to lower that tax rates and the individual income taxes. The country imposes one of the highest individual income tax in Southeast Asia at 32 percent while paying one of the lowest workers’ wages.

Thailand and Vietnam collect 35 percent, but on taxable income above P5.2 million and above P2 million, respectively. Indonesia’s tax rate is 32 percent; Malaysia, 26 percent; and Singapore, 20 percent. The workers, who bear the brunt of steering and churning the economy but have yet to receive their fair share of their labor, should not be made to carry the burden of paying high, inequitable taxes.

—FERDINAND R. GAITE, national president, Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees, couragenational@yahoo.com