Netizens push for lower tax rates

MANILA, Philippines - Hundreds of netizens are urging President Aquino and the Congress to lower the income tax rates in the Philippines, citing data showing it is one the highest in Southeast Asia.

 “The income tax in the Philippine is excessively outdated by almost two decades since the last update was in 1997 without provision for peso devaluation, making the rates irrelevant to inflation and today’s value of money,” the petition filed in Change.org (http://chn.ge/1pc2Srh) stated.

The petition, which has over 300 supporters as of yesterday, said Filipinos are paying high taxes, “yet we see our taxes being stolen by Napoles-like shenanigans and in cahoots with evil, thick-faced, no-good government officials.”

 “The existing income tax rates in the Philippines are unfair in terms of bracketing where the middle-class pay the same rate as billionaires,” it added.

Similar to the data earlier submitted by the Tax Management Association of the Philippines to Congress, the petition said that Filipinos earning P500,000 annually are taxed at 32 percent.

It claimed that lower taxes are imposed citizens earning an equivalent to P500,000 annually in other countries in Southeast Asia: Vietnam (20 percent), Cambodia (12 percent), Malaysia (11 percent), Thailand (10 percent), Singapore (two percent), and Brunei (none).

A Rappler article, written by Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Policy Center director Ronald Mendoza and economic research associate Enrico Gloria, said “a casual analysis of tax policies in ASEAN suggest that the Philippines has the second highest average tax rate.”

For taxes imposed on the highest income bracket, Vietnam and Thailand lead at 35 percent, while the Philippines is at close second at 32 percent income tax.

The country also has the highest value added tax rates at 12 percent, according to the same report.

The online petition said that lowering income taxes will benefit Filipinos “struggling to make ends meet and furthermore stimulate the economy by empowering the people with the choice on how to spend their additional take home pay.”

 “No wonder our countrymen risk their lives and family life by working abroad just to make ends meet, because staying means not only getting underpaid but deducted one third of salary due to soaring high income tax,” it added.

Various proposals seeking to reduce tax rates are currently pending before the Congress, among them the proposed measure of Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara to bring down across the board income tax rates.