From government’s point of view, the ideal excise tax on sin products is an ad valorem or a percentage tax of the manufacturing price of a pack of cigarettes or a bottle of beer or whiskey. Failing that, it can accept a specific tax on these products indexed to the inflation rate. Of course, it [...]
Archive for the ‘Taxation’ Category
Taxing professionals
Posted: September 16, 2011 in BIR, BIR Commissioner Kim Henares, Bureau of Internal Revenue, income taxation, TaxationThe Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the country’s premier revenue collection agency, announced today that tax evasion charges were filed against a well-known election lawyer and three other professionals. The lawyer purportedly earned only P1.38 million in 2010 but was able to purchase a condo unit in Makati City valued at P53.3 million, according to [...]
Tax reform under GMA, Part III
Posted: January 4, 2011 in GMA, Legislators, Legislatures, Philippine politics, Political economy, Political institutions, tax reform, TaxationEarly in PGMA’s full term, a new sin tax law (that again failed to index tax rates to price changes) was passed together with a reformed VAT law (which increased the VAT rate from 10% to 12% and expanded VAT coverage) and a lateral attrition law (which provided a stick-and-carrot system to spur revenue collection) [...]
Tax reform under PGMA, Part II
Posted: January 3, 2011 in GMA, Legislatures, Philippine politics, Political economy, tax reform, Taxation, UncategorizedIn her first State of the Nation Address (SONA) after the inauguration of her second term, President Arroyo asked Congress to pass some 8 tax measures designed to increase government revenues by at least P80 billion (PDI 2004a). Even as the fiscal health of government was in bad shape, none among the top government [...]
