Thursday, July 10, 2008 Councilor reminds employers on workers' tax exemption
COUNCILOR Peter Laviña called on employers to start adjusting their employees' pay slips with the new law exempting minimum wage earners from income tax taking effect last July 6.
"The non-wage benefit due to the workers should be reflected starting in this month's salary," Laviña said Wednesday.
Republic Act 9504 exempts minimum wage earners in both private and government sectors from income taxes. This was proposed during the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting last April 22, 2008 as one of government's non-wage benefits aimed at increasing the workers' take-home pay.
Lavina authored the City Council resolution that called for the enactment of this law.
Aside from exempting those receiving basic minimum pay from income tax, the new law also exempts work-related benefits like overtime pay, night shift differential, hazard pay, and holiday pay.
"Individual taxpayers earning beyond the minimum wage would also enjoy an increase in their personal exemptions and additional deductions," Laviña said.
He added that an individual taxpayer would now be entitled to a P50,000 personal exemption from the previous P30,000 and an additional deduction of P25,000 from P8,000 for each dependent of up to four children. (GLP)
