Education stakeholders seek Duterte’s help in reversing tax hike on private schools

Various private education stakeholders have appealed to President Duterte to intervene as they seek to reverse the provisions in the revenue regulation of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) which seeks to increase the tax rate of private schools.

A petition signed by at least 600 private education stakeholders has sought the President’s help “in correcting the errors” in the BIR’s Revenue Regulation RR 5-2021 which raises the tax rate of private education institutions from 10 percent to 25 percent.

The petition, which was posted on the Facebook page of Coordinating Council for Private Educational Associations (COCOPEA), stated that the BIR’s latest tax regulation “directly contradicts” the provisions under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) and the Constitution.

“Simply put, RR 5-2021 will severely harm the schools, parents, students, teachers, employees and, other stakeholders in the private education sector, which is a large and vital partner of the government in providing quality education nationwide,” the signatories said.

“The erroneous provision of RR 5-2021 will add a heavy additional burden to the many stakeholders of the private education sector, at a time when we are already fighting for our survival,” they added.

The group lamented that their sector has not yet recovered from the “debilitating effects” of the K-12 Law, and is still struggling with the steep drop in enrollment due to the pandemic. “RR 5-2021 will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.”

“We appeal for your intervention because we have exhausted all other administrative avenues by requesting various government offices, including the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Finance, to revisit and reverse those provisions of RR 5-2021, to no avail. This will cause irreparable harm to the private education sector and its many stakeholders,” the petitioners said.

“We come to you Mr. President as the final arbiter for administrative remedy and the ultimate protector of our many stakeholders. We know how much you value education and its key role in alleviating poverty alleviation,” they added.