P500 bills, Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza (Unsplash, PPAB)

House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to do away with the "burdensome" tax registration fee being required of Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) candidates. 

Daza brought up the matter of the P500 tax registration fee during the plenary debates on the Comelec's 2024 budget Wednesday, Sept. 20. 

"That's burdensome. There are many SK members, candidates who are students, who have no income. And they're being required to pay P500," Daza said during bid interpellation of poll body's outlay for next year. 

Surigao del Norte 1st district Rep. Bingo Matugas, the budget sponsor of Comelec, concurred with minority official that the P500 was indeed a burden. 

However, Matugas clarified that Comelec technically wasn't the one requiring the fee from the SK candidates. 

"So it's the BIR on their own. The Comelec [does] not agree with the BIR. It's really a financial burden. Yung presumption ng BIR doon sa financial donation, pinepresume nila na subject to donor’s tax. [When] in fact, hindi siya subject to donor’s tax," the budget sponsor said. 

(The BIRDS presumption with the financial donations is, they presume it's subject to donor’s tax. When in fact, it's not subject to donor's tax.) 

Hearing this, Daza asked Comelec to produce an "issuance to make that BIR requirement not applicable for this upcoming barangay elections". 

"Yes po, the answer is yes. The Comelec will come up with a resolution or petition--an advisory addressed to the BIR," Matugas said. 

The Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections (BSKE) will take place on Monday, Oct. 30.