By 2nd District of Manila Rep. Rolando Valeriano
Tax-exempt fringe “De Minimis” benefits (DMb) are basically of kinds: monthly and annual. Congress delegated to the secretary of finance and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) commissioner, the power to regulate how high the tax-exempt ceilings of these benefits are.
As a House Committee on Ways and Means vice-chair and on behalf of my constituents in the 2nd District of Manila, I recommend to Secretary Ralph Recto and Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, Jr., I that they raise by 30 percent or more the tax-exempt ceilings of the monthly DMb, as well as those of the annual DMb.
Why 30 percent? Because 30 percent will sufficiently make up for the lost purchasing power of the peso since the National Internal Revenue Code had its last major revisions that took effect in January 2018.
This 30 percent hike I suggest can be applied separately to the monthly and to the annual, instead of lumping them all together as one package.
Let us take a look at the possible ceiling hikes the Department of Finance and BIR have floated. First, the monthly ones. Clearly the 25 percent increase in tax-exempt subsidies falls short of 30 percent. The increase should be at least P750, not P500, and therefore the new tax ceiling should be P2,750 at least.