House of Representatives (PPAB)

An estimated one million families are expected to benefit from the bill extending the availment period of estate tax amnesty--the same bill that was passed on third and final reading by the House of Representatives on Monday afternoon, May 15. Given final nod by the chamber during plenary session was House Bill (HB) No. 7909, which extends the estate tax amnesty period up to June 14, 2025. The current deadline as per Republic Act (RA) No.11213 or the "Tax Amnesty Act", as amended, is June 15, 2023--just four weeks away. Deputy Speaker and Davao City 3rd district Rep. Isidro Ungab announced that the measure garnered 259 affirmative votes during nominal voting. There were zero negative votes and zero abstentions. House Speaker Martin Romualdez, the principal author of HB No.7909, said the proposed extension would give those covered by the law enough time to avail themselves of the amnesty and lower tax rates so they could use the properties and assets they inherited from their departed loved ones. “They have barely recovered from the Covid-19 pandemic, and the amnesty deadline, which had been extended once, is just a month away. It’s on June 14. Thus, the need for another extension,” Speaker Romualdez, Leyte's 1st district representative, said. Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda, House Committee on Ways and Means chairman, said the two-year extension would benefit up to one million families. The Speaker's co-authors include Majority Leader and Zamboanga City 2nd district Rep. Mannix Dalipe, Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st district Rep. Sandro Marcos, Committee on Accounts Chairperson and Tingog Party-list Rep. Yedda Marie Romualdez, and Deputy Majority Leader and Tingog Party-list Rep. Jude Acidre. The House leader urged the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to simplify the amnesty application procedure and allow online filing, especially for heirs who are overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Speaker Romualdez said the pandemic and the financial and economic difficulties it caused made it hard for thousands of heirs, especially those in the provinces, to take advantage of the benefits the law, RA No.11213, or the Tax Amnesty Act, enacted on Feb. 14, 2019. “Let us not make the situation more difficult for them," he added. He stressed that the payment of estate taxes would not only result in additional tax revenue for the government, but in the faster distribution and use of inherited properties like land as well. “It would unlock the potential for the development and economic utilization of those assets to the benefit not only of the heirs but of communities where those properties are located,” the Speaker said. Under the original language of the Tax Amnesty Act, delinquent heirs, executors, and administrators had up to June 15, 2021 to to avail themselves of the amnesty. The law covered the estates of decedents who died on or before December 31, 2017, with or without duly issued assessments, and whose estate taxes have remained unpaid or have accrued as of the same date. The law offers those taking advantage of amnesty immunity from civil, criminal, and administrative cases and penalties under the 1997 Tax Code. The pandemic prompted Congress to amend the law in June 2021 to provide for a two-year extension up to June 14, 2023.