Overhaul our complicated tax system!

Tomorrow is the 15th of April or the Ides of April, a day dreaded by many people as it is the deadline for the filing of income taxes. In Shakespeare’s day, the Ides of March was considered a day of foreboding. A soothsayer gave this warning to Julius Caesar which went unheeded and thus, Caesar died by the daggers of his friends. Well, tomorrow, you can say that it is a day that many taxpayers dread simply because of our complicated tax system — a system that more often than not, forces the honest taxpayer to deal with dishonest tax collectors.

Yes, a couple of weeks back, the complicated tax system was in the forefront of the reforms that many citizens were demanding because it is difficult for the common man to understand and it is not so easy for the learned to grasp either. This is precisely why the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (PCCI) made this a national issue — that we ought to overhaul our tax system and make it easy for the majority to comprehend and more importantly, to make it more equitable.

Yes, we know too well that the majority of honest taxpayers come from the ranks of the employed, both from the private and government sectors. It is big business that is supposed to bear the bigger chunk of the revenue pie. However, thanks once again to the intricate policies prevailing in our tax system, it shocks us to know that certain owners of big businesses are paying less taxes than some salaried employees. What is even worse, I haven’t heard of a single person being sent to jail for income tax evasion. In America, at least we won’t forget Chicago mobster Alphonse "Al’ Capone a.k.a. Scarface whom the Feds couldn’t pin down on any racketeering or murder charge, but bagged him for tax evasion.

So this brings us to the question which we’d like to ask from all the presidential candidates — what they would do in case they get elected? Are they going to promote a genuine reform in our tax system or are we going to see much of the same thing? A lot of friends I have talked with told me that their criterion for choosing a presidential candidate is the one who has a clear-cut idea of what is plaguing the BIR. For sure, many people are extremely happy that the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA) has gone into its "lifestyle checks" with the BIR or Customs because this puts a sword of Damocles over these corrupt people’s heads — and many are hoping that this will go on.

Let me point out that a complicated tax system promotes self-interpretation by unscrupulous BIR personnel, thus, even if an honest businessman files his taxes, he can be charged for wrong reporting or wrong payment and then made to pay high penalties. Thus, under-the-table deals with unscrupulous BIR personnel become the only way out. More so, when businessmen are given some kind of hope by the BIR for a future "tax amnesty."

This is why we’ve always been against tax amnesties simply because they give the tax evader a better deal than the honest taxpayer.

At this point, we can only hope for something new in our tax system, that someone out there will give us a fool-proof plan in our tax collection system. The late Deng Xiaoping, the architect of modern-day China, batted for a good system, saying, "With a Good System, even Evil men cannot do Evil. Without a Good System, even Good men cannot do Good, but may be forced to do Evil." This should be a good motivation to overhaul our tax system!

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With elections just less than a month away, people in Cebu believe that too much emphasis or focus has been given on the presidential contenders, and nothing much is said about the senatoriables. Indeed, for a president to succeed, he or she needs the full support of the Senate and Congress. For the Holy Week, we were in the municipality of Barili and I started asking around who are the ordinary folk’s senatoriables and I could not believe that the name recall of the ordinary folk is so low; they can only remember a few names whom they would vote for the Senate.

This really tells you that we ought to give more focus on what this or that senatoriable represents or believes in. Many here in Cebu believe that reforms can only come through Charter changes, hence, this would be a good gauge in choosing the candidates who would work for Charter changes. Of course, the problem is many of these senatoriables are campaigning for votes but when they are elected into office, it is quite easy to change their minds or what then Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago once quipped, "I lied!"

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Here’s a response to our article on languages last Monday:

"Hi Bobit, I read your column today. I’m glad you wrote that it is time to rethink our language policies. English has deteriorated so much in Manila with the pronounced anti-English bias around here. In this connection, Preciosa Soliven wrote in her April 1 column in The Philippine STAR that ‘President Aquino ...listened to her leftist advisers who habitually promoted (Tagalog) against the language of the imperialists who they consider as their enemy. She even reminded Congress and the Senate to conduct their business in Tagalog. Schools then reverted from English to Tagalog. Paradoxically, while the Filipinos lost the command of English, the other Asian countries were spending a lot to learn and speak English.’

"Yes, indeed. I have noticed that the young mainland Chinese speak excellent English with almost no Chinese accent as compared to the older generation Taiwanese I used to work with who had a very heavy and thick accent. In Manila, people generally don’t speak English. They speak Taglish. I guess Cebuanos speak better English, albeit with an accent. At least there is no language switching. But Tagalogs have an accent too although they think it is perfect. They are in a state of denial... Regards, Lino Faelnar, Save Our Languages Through Federalism (Solfed)"

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, Straight from the Sky, every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.