Bill extending estate tax amnesty period to 2025 gets penultimate House nod
The House plenary. (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)
The bill seeking to extend by another two years the availment of estate tax amnesty breezed through House plenary Tuesday afternoon, May 8, en route to its second reading passage. Declared approved on second reading was House Bill (HB) No.7909, which seeks to extend 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, or around five weeks away. Nueva Ecija 3rd district Rep. Ria Vergara sponsored HB No.7909 on the floor Tuesday. None of Vergara's House colleagues interpellated her. House members also made no amendments to the measure, the authors of which include the House's top officials. A simple voice vote (ayes vs. nayes) for second reading of HB No.7909 followed wherein the affirmative votes won. The presiding officer at the time, House Deputy Speaker and Batangas 6th district Rep. Ralph Recto formalized the bill's penultimate passage. This paves the way for the bill's passage on third and final reading next week.
The estate tax amnesty under RA No.11213 provides taxpayers the immunity from the payment of estate taxes as well as any increments and additions thereto, and civil, criminal, and administrative cases and penalties under the 1997 Tax Code. The law, enacted on Feb. 14, 2019, covers the estates of decedents who died on or before Dec. 31, 2017, with or without assessments duly issued before, and whose estate taxes have remained unpaid or have accrued as of Dec. 31, 2017. During the previous 18th Congress, RA No.11569 was enacted. It amended RA No.11213 to extend the availment period of the estate tax amnesty from its original June 15, 2021 deadline to June 14, 2023 The House bill was earlier hailed as an improved version of the estate tax amnesty law as it covers deaths which occurred on or before Dec. 31, 2021, amending the cut-off period of Dec. 31, 2017 in RA No.11213. This means that deaths resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic would get covered. House Speaker and Leyte 1st district Rep. Martin Romualdez, 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 were among the authors of the measure.