Philippines: Implementation of possible tax amnesty program to be done via EO

• Apr 10, 2017

MANILA, Philippines – The government is looking at implementing its tax amnesty scheme through an executive order from the President, Department of Finance (DOF) chief Carlos Dominguez said.

“We’ll see if we can do it with an EO,” Dominguez said on the sidelines of a joint press briefing of ASEAN finance ministers and central bank governors.

Earlier, the DOF secretary said the government is designing a tax amnesty scheme which may be similar to Indonesia’s after it has shown that it is “serious” in apprehending tax evaders.

However, Dominguez clarified the Philippines’ tax amnesty program would not be a complete replica of Indonesia’s scheme as the problems of the two nations are different.

“The Indonesians have a different problem. They have money outside. They had assets equivalent I think to 40 percent of their GDP that is outside of the country,” he said.

“Ours is different. People just haven’t paid taxes,” he said.

Dominguez said the tax amnesty program would be rolled out on a piecemeal basis, depending on the bills that would get passed by Congress.

The DOF is currently pushing for the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program which aims to overhaul the country’s tax system and improve government revenues. The proposal will include four different amnesty measures on property tax, estate taxes, regular taxes and tax cases.

“We will consider the tax amnesty sometime in the future. There is a psychological effect here, if you declare a tax amnesty and they are not afraid of you, they’ll not give you any money,” Dominguez said

Source: http://www.philstar.com/business/2017/04/10/1689282/implementation-possible-tax-amnesty-program-be-done-eo