Recto, Angara: Scrap new tax on private schools. Inquirer Newsletter June 5, 2021

No images? Click here   BUFFER   Marikina City hopes to get added protection against “another ‘Ondoy’” with a drainage system built along Riverbanks Park. The city was deeply scarred by the storm that unleashed devastating floods across Metro Manila in 2009. -Grig C. Montegrande     News PNP body cams finally seeing action Members of the Philippine National Police will be finally seen wearing body cameras in action, three years after the purchase of such equipment for P289 million. PNP chief Guillermo Eleazar says this “will ensure there would be no breach of standard police procedures and human rights during operations.” The cameras will also help officers in disputing “malicious and wrong allegations.” —Story by Dexter Cabalza Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   News Boracay, Ilocos Norte reopen to visitors Boracay Island and Ilocos Norte province have reopened their tourist destinations to travelers from Metro Manila, after restrictions were eased in the National Capital Region (NCR) Plus bubble composed of the NCR and the provinces of Rizal, Laguna, Cavite and Bulacan. Leisure establishments are banking on the revival of their main domestic markets to recover mounting losses since March last year. —Story by the Inquirer staff Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Newsletter / Join us Has this been forwarded by a friend? Subscribe now to the Philippine Daily Inquirer Newsletter and get your latest news and important updates on COVID-19. Subscribe   Get it here     Banner Story Recto, Angara: Scrap new tax on private schools By DJ Yap Two Senate leaders on Friday demanded that the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) rescind the “absurd” 150-percent increase in income tax it had imposed on private schools struggling to survive the pandemic, saying the agency made an “erroneous interpretation” of a new tax measure. Under BIR Regulation No. 5-2021 (RR 5-2021), which took effect on April 9, the income tax rate on so-called proprietary educational institutions that are run by stock corporations would be increased to 25 percent from the current 10 percent. “It is illogical, absurd and goes against the spirit of the law,” Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said, referring to the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act, which was passed in March. Bill to ‘correct’ BIR Recto said the very title of the law signified the authors’ intent to bail out distressed companies, including private schools, from the disadvantageous tax regime. “So how can the BIR invoke it to inflict a 150-percent increase on the income tax of private schools, which is directly opposite to what the law clearly intends?” he said in a statement. “CREATE is meant to bail out distressed private schools. The BIR order further drowns them in a sea of red ink.” The chair of the Senate finance committee, Sen. Sonny Angara, said he had filed a bill to “correct” the BIR’s “erroneous interpretation on tax perks granted to educational institutions under CREATE.” The BIR wrongly interpreted a provision in the CREATE law on which schools could qualify for the much-needed 1 percent preferential tax rate from the current 10 percent. To the BIR, such schools should be both proprietary and nonprofit, he said. But Angara explained that being proprietary and nonprofit was a “legal impossibility” because the term “proprietary” generally meant “one that is privately owned and managed, and run as a profit-making organization.” “Thus, instead of shoring up proprietary educational institutions during the pandemic ... this erroneous regulation would instead subject them to the regular rate of 25 percent,” he said. “Schools are among the hardest-hit institutions during this pandemic. We can be more sensitive in our policies,” Angara said. The constitutional provision on proprietary educational institutions “clearly refers to for-profit educational institutions organized as stock corporations,” he added. Angara said the BIR’s “confusing and erroneous tax regulation” contradicted the language and the intention of both the Constitution and current tax laws. Besides penalizing, marginalizing and discriminating against private schools, the higher tax rate “could lead to even more closures as they are already struggling to cope with the financial pressures brought about by the pandemic,” he said. “This will lead to even more teachers and other school personnel losing their jobs and the loss of income for the extensive network of linked small and medium enterprises and livelihood activities of the host communities as well,” Angara said. In letters to the BIR in April and May and a public statement early this month, the 2,500-member Coordinating Council of Private Educational Associations (Cocopea) questioned the tax agency’s move, saying it violated the CREATE Act, the Tax Code and the Constitution. In a petition they made public on Friday, Cocopea and over 600 private school associations and individuals, appealed to President Duterte to reverse the new policy and correct the “onerous and erroneous provisions” of BIR’s regulation. “RR 5-2021 will severely harm the schools, parents, students, teachers, employees and other stakeholders in the private education sector, which is a large and vital partner of the government in providing quality education nationwide,” they said. Those that signed the petition included Davao Colleges and Universities Network Inc., Association of Private, State Colleges, Universities in Region XI, and  members of school employees associations around the country. They said those that would be severely affected by the new tax policy were makers of school uniforms, cafeteria workers, store owners, plus the dormitories, janitorial and security services, school bus operators and their drivers and helpers, book suppliers, and informal businesses on and around school campuses. They said the new tax rate could “directly affect” the academic, athletic, working student and needs-based scholars, faculty and staff of the various private schools in the country. Finance chief cites SC Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III, who oversees the BIR, on Friday maintained that RR 5-2021 was “based on Supreme Court decisions and the Tax Code.” The finance chief and head of the administration’s economic management team himself was the signatory to RR 5-2021 alongside BIR Commissioner Caesar Dulay. “We will, however, respect and implement any future decision of the Supreme Court or enacted legislation concerning this matter,” Dominguez said. Spark, an activist youth and student group advocating free education, also called on the government to stop the high taxes imposed on private schools, which it said would only make it harder for the education sector to cope with the pandemic. “New taxes like this would only cause the passing of the burden to the students and their families rather than the private institutions themselves,” said Spark in a statement. It said that it was “ironic” for Cocopea to call for a correction of the BIR regulation. “Spark doesn’t buy Cocopea and other private non-sectarian educational institutions’ hypocrisy and crocodile tears on its call to rectify RR 5-2021,” it said in a statement. “You claim that it is damaging to your already struggling private institution when in reality, you will only pass the burden of the increase of taxes onto the shoulders of your students,” the group said. “From whom do they even procure their profits? Isn’t it from the students and their parents? If there really is someone struggling, it is not these private institutions, but the students and their parents,” it said. —WITH A REPORT FROM MARIEJO S. RAMOS AND BEN O. DE VERA Read more: newsinfo.inquirer.net   Editorial To serve and protect? In the wake of police atrocities, some officials have proposed that comprehensive neuro-psychological evaluation and counseling be provided policemen. These may indeed be necessary, but the arrogance, audacity, and sense of impunity of police especially in the last few years can also be traced to the policies instituted by higher-ups, and the attitudes articulated by national officials, not least of them the Chief Executive. Just hours before the killing of Valdez, President Duterte was on the air telling victims of summary executions and their families that, in essence, they were to blame. 'His' policemen, Mr. Duterte said, were 'trained to kill,' so it was incumbent on civilians to keep to the straight and narrow and avoid any encounters with law enforcers. Whatever has happened to the police’s sworn duty 'to serve and protect'?   Read full story: opinion.inquirer.net   Discover here           Share    Tweet    Share    Forward  Copyright © 2020 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: P.O. Box 2353, Makati Central Post Office, 1263 Makati City, Philippines. Preferences  |  Unsubscribe