The current estate tax amnesty program is set to expire on June 14, 2023.
Senate Bill 2197 was filed by Senate Committee on Ways and Means chairman Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, while Senate Bill 2170 was filed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Senate President Pro Tempore Loren Legarda and Majority Leader Joel Villanueva.
The bills seek to extend the estate tax amnesty until June 14, 2025.
Gatchalian’s bill also seeks to simplify the process and requirements for availing of the tax amnesty program, particularly the submission of extrajudicial proof of settlement to encourage more taxpayers to take advantage of tax reprieve.
“Revenue collection from the amnesty program will surely increase significantly if the amendments in the proposed measure are approved. It will surely benefit our taxpayers and at the same time provide additional revenues for the government,” he said.
“The difficulties associated with having to wrangle with various government agencies to secure the necessary documentation and the prohibitive cost of having to prove eligibility at every stage of the succession process also serve as deterrents in the settlement of the estate tax,” he added.
As of March 2023, the Bureau of Internal Revenue has already collected a total of P7.41 billion against a target of P6.28 billion from 133,680 taxpayers who availed themselves of the program.
On Monday, May 15, the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a bill expanding the period of availment of estate tax amnesty until June 14, 2023. It covers those who died on or before December 31, 2017 until December 31, 2021.
Estate tax cases that will have become final and executory; properties involved in cases pending in appropriate courts; those falling under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG); those involving unexplained or unlawfully acquired wealth under Republic Act 3019, otherwise known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and Republic Act 7080 or An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder; those involving violations of Republic Act 9160, otherwise known as the Anti-Money Laundering Act, as amended; those involving tax evasion and other criminal offenses under Chapter 1 of Title 10 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended; and those involving felonies of frauds, illegal exactions and transactions, and malversation of public funds and property under Chapters 3 and 4 of Title 7 of the Revised Penal Code are not covered by the program. (SunStar Philippines)