THE House of Representatives is willing to adopt the Senate of version of a bill raising to P82,000 the tax exemption ceiling for 13th month pay and other bonuses, a House leader said Thursday.
House Majority Floor Leader Neptali Gonzales II said that they will likely adopt the Senate version of the bill, which seeks to increase the current P30,000 tax exemption cap for bonuses in the public and private sectors.
Gonzales said the House has no problem with adopting the higher tax exemption ceiling in the Senate version. The House approved bill pegged the tax exemption cap at P70,000.
"We have no problem with the Senate version. But we have to study it carefully," Gonzales said.
On Wednesday, the Senate voted 14-0 to pass on third and final reading the bill seeking to increase the tax exemption cap for 13th month pay and other benefits up to P82,000.
The Senate initially pegged the tax exemption ceiling to P75,000 but it was raised to P82,000 upon the proposal of Senator Ralph Recto.
The bill seeks to exclude 13th month pay and other Christmas bonuses from the computation of the gross income for the purposes of income taxation.
It also mandates the Finance Department and the Bureau of Internal Revenue to increase the threshold every three years based on the consumer price index and inflation.
Meanwhile, Marikina City Representative Romero Quimbo, chairperson of the House committee on ways and means, said he will push for the implementation of the new tax exemption ceiling this December in the upcoming bicameral conference.
"We will propose too that we make it effective 2014. In hindsight we've realized at the HOR (House of Representative), where the bill was created and crafted originally, why should we delay the enjoyment of the benefit when we've come to determine that it's very much needed already today," Quimbo said.
"The Senate version specifically states it will be effective next year. We will appeal to them to make it effective this year. That's what we propose to take up at bicam. This will be timely as most Christmas bonuses will be given this coming month. We'd like the ordinary worker to already enjoy this much needed benefit now rather than later," he added.
Meanwhile, a labor group was not so happy with the looming bigger take-home pay.
In a statement, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said the measure would benefit only a few workers.
"Increasing the tax cap would not give any economic relief to the majority of Filipino workers who have long been subjected to poverty wages and widespread contractual employment. Even for those who would gain from the bill, the case is one of too little, too late," said KMU chairperson Elmer Labog.
KMU said that due to "various violations" of the minimum wage and "widespread" contractualization, only 20 percent of the country's total work force would be covered by the new cap on tax exemption.
"Why implement the measure next year, after the prices of basic goods and payments for basic services would have soared even higher? Is there an assurance that Aquino would sign the law given his government’s appetite for higher taxes for workers and the poor?" Labog asked.
Instead of enacting the bill, KMU asked the government to support the implementation of P16,000 monthly minimum wage and criminalization of contractualization as an employment scheme. (Sunnex)