The government vowed that it will ‘take it easy’ to erring tax payers.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said on Tuesday that the government will ‘take it easy’ with delinquent tax payers and vowed that the government will not sort to name-and-shame campaign in to better tax collection.
Dominguez promised that the Duterte administration will not be as tough to the erring tax payers as it is to drug personalities.
Dominguez said, “Those are different things. In our particular case, collecting tax is a little more complex than getting people to surrender for drugs”. “It’s going to be aggressive, but I don’t know if it will be as aggressive as that one”, he added.
The cabinet member also told the media that the government would just continue on filing tax evasion cases and pursuing existing ones, prioritizing those it believes are “winnable”.
Records show that 635 tax evasion and smuggling cases worth P103 billion left by the previous administration under its Run After Tax Evaders and Run After The Smugglers programs.
Aside from that, the past government also relied on its Tax Watch project that publicizes company and individual names found to have low tax payments related to their transactions and income.
Dominguez, for his part, said he expects more voluntary compliance with planned lower income tax rates.
“There has to be a way for government to lower tax rates while broadening the tax base… I am sure there is a way to keep the budget balanced, while growing the middle class,” he said in a speech.
Benedict Tugonon, president of industry group Tax Management Association of the Philippines, lauded Dominguez’s statements. In an interview, he said, “There is confidentiality clause in the tax law that restrains the release of information on cases”. He also added that, “Given the new administration’s thrust in boosting tax compliance, I have no doubt it will encourage the public to pay the correct taxes”.