The Department of Finance (DOF) on Thursday said it does not support the measures that seek to provide a tax exemption for teachers and other personnel who would render services during elections.
The DOF made their position known at the Senate Committee on Ways and Means hearing on the various pending bills that seek to amend certain provisions in the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, particularly House Bill No. 9652 and Senate Bill Nos. 1193, 2456 and 117.
“We do not support the tax exemption. While we recognize the objective of the measures to give additional benefits to our teachers who will be rendering service on top of their additional responsiblities,” said Arvin Quiñones, Director IV at the DOF’s Domestic Finance Group.
Quiñones also said the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, which was signed into law in 2017, already provides tax relief from the reduciton of personal income tax rates.
The DOF official also said the proposal runs counter to the principles of the TRAIN Law and would make the tax system more difficult to implement.
“Exempting one kind of activity in this case, the electoral services that our teachers provide would be unequitable to other similar activities that provide a similar kind of service,” he said.
The DOF official also said lawmakers can consider other means of providing teachers with other benefits but not through the country’s tax system since it can be subject to abuse and make it difficult to implement.
“If we provide exemption for one sector, other sectors may also clamor for similar exemptions. And we believe, in the DOF, that the tax system is not the best way to provide additional benefits for the sectors,” Quinones pointed out.
The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) shares the same perspective on the matter, according to Atty. Anne Loraine Garcia, of the BIR’s Law and Legislative Division.
Garcia said implementing a tax exemption for teachers would affect the government’s revenue collection which is “the lifeblood of the government” especially during national emergencies and calamities.