FOR AUGUST 6, 2023
Making taxes less burdensome
The privilege to earn an income, to own a
property, or to transmit one to your heirs or
beneficiaries comes with it the duty to pay the
corresponding amount of taxes imposed by the
government.
Paying taxes, indeed, is a burden we cannot avoid
as citizens of a country that chiefly relies on tax
revenues to sustain the existence of the government.
Taxes are not donations given out of the liberality of a
cheerful giver. Instead, they are given grudgingly or
reluctantly by the citizens who toiled so hard just to
give their families a decent living.
Being an obligation imposed by law, the payment
of taxes is made out of compulsion, out of the fear of
severe consequences. Refusal to pay the tax
obligation will not only result in forfeiture of the
taxpayer’s properties but also imprisonment for tax
evasion and violation of the penal provisions of the Tax
Code.
But aside from being burdensome, tax laws and
regulations are made too complex for an ordinary man
to understand. One wonders whether these laws,
which everyone is supposed to know by heart, are
intentionally crafted by legislators and implemented
through cumbersome rules and regulations to collect
penalties and surcharges. Try reading the Tax Code
and the revenue regulations as your guide to filing and
paying your taxes, and you end up more confused
than enlightened.
A VAT taxpayer who uses one point-of-sale
machine and who sells to 30 different customers in
one month with a total sales revenue of P250,000.00
needs to open and encode his transactions separately
in no less than five (5) BIR applications to comply with
the reporting requirements. Sadly, this is the hassle he
has to undergo for a business giving him a measly 2%
markup (roughly P4,500.00 per month) before the
deduction of expenses. Fail not to comply with this
labyrinth of bureaucratic mess; otherwise, you will be
treated to a smorgasbord of hefty fines and penalties
at the Bureau’s bizarre customer service lounge.
Realizing that the government is making it too
hard for the taxpayers, the proposed bill on the Ease
of Paying Taxes Act (EOPT) is a welcomed
development in the legislative mill. With this proposal,
the legislative department is currently making efforts
“to modernize the labyrinthine tax administration
procedures by simplifying tax compliance, removing
redundant and obsolete tax requirements, and lifting
restrictions that prevent taxpayers from complying
with tax laws remotely.”
Though it may still be challenging to part with our
hard-earned money as our enforced contribution to
running the affairs of the government, at least we do
it out of a sense of obligation and patriotism, and not
because the sword of Damocles is hanging over our
heads.