Roxas questions BIR on tax exemption period

CEBU - To give justice to more than 500,000 minimum wage earners nationwide, Sen. Mar Roxas filed a petition the other day before the Bureau of Internal Revenue to question the period of implementation of the tax exemption for the said wage earners.

Roxas, who was in Cebu yesterday for a forum on corruption, said that his petition will correct the period of the implementation, which he thinks was erroneously interpreted by the BIR.

Roxas, who is the principal author of Republic Act 9504 or An Act Amending Sections 22, 24, 34, 35 and 79 of RA 8424, as amended, otherwise known as the National Internal Revenue Code of 1987, said that the BIR started the implementation of the exemption last July instead of last January.

“That is not the legislative intent of the law. The intent was to start the implementation by January and not July, that’s why I have filed the petition,” Roxas said.

President Gloria Arroyo signed the bill into law last July exempting minimum wage earners from paying income tax and increasing the personal exemptions of employees.

Roxas added that once it will be granted, the minimum wage earners shall receive a tax refund.

Under the new law, income such as overtime, night differential pay, holiday pay, hazard pay, and overtime pay received by minimum wage earners should be exempted from taxes.

The government stands to lose P3.16 billion annually in tax revenues with the income tax exemption of minimum wage earners. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP (THE FREEMAN)