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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Debt and taxes

Debt and taxes

Published Jan 15, 2024 04:07 pm

MEDIUM RARE

Jullie Y. Daza

As expected, Ralph Recto, the new secretary of finance, has a head for numbers. The wonderful thing about him is that he has a way with words also.
Add to those two gifts, he’s quite a nice guy – ask Mrs. Recto, aka Vilma Santos – plus he has a sense of humor besides. He’s so nice that business groups are already praising PBBM for appointing him to head Finance, sitting on top of the Bureaus of Customs and Internal Revenue.


With the former congressman and senator now leading the President’s economic team, may we expect at the very least a more direct, open line of communication between taxpayers and tax collectors? When Secretary Recto said that every morning he has to wake up to the fact that BIR, the bane of taxpayers, and Customs, the great unfavorite of businessmen, need to collect ₱20 billion that day and every day after that, the taxpayer is jolted into realizing that taxes, like debt and death, are inevitable. It’s as daunting a task for government to collect as it is for citizens to pay: ₱4.3 trillion yearly.  


Sympathy for the tax collector? From the time of Jesus, tax agents like Judas were treated with contempt, not to be invited to dine with the taxpayer at his table. And yet, as Secretary Recto tells us, he needs us to pay our taxes and help alleviate poverty. As a lawmaker, Mr. Recto worked for the passage of the expanded value added tax law, which some quarters blamed for his defeat in seeking reelection in the mid-‘90s.


Is there any way to make tax-paying less painful? In countries that seem to empathize with their law-abiding citizens, they have done away with individual income tax payments, relying instead on the value added tax (VAT) imposed on every piece of goods or articles purchased. If a rich man spends ₱5 million on a car or boat, tax him for his taste for luxuries. But exercise a little understanding when it comes to dunning a working-class professional who can only afford half a million for a second- or third-hand car.


Let’s try taxing people not according to how much they earn but how much they spend. It shouldn’t sound so radical then, or does it?

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