DOF weighs tax amnesty plan covering liabilities from 2007
The Department of Finance (DOF) is considering a general tax amnesty that could wipe the slate clean on unpaid internal revenue and customs taxes dating back to 2007, part of a broader effort to raise money without imposing new levies.
“It will cover all internal revenue taxes from 2024 and previous years,” Finance Undersecretary Charlito Mendoza told a Senate hearing on Monday, adding that the agency is still weighing how far back the amnesty should go.
The DOF will not push for any new taxes until 2026, Finance Undersecretary Karlo Fermin Adriano told the same briefing. But he said there’s one measure in the Marcos administration’s priority: excise tax on single-use plastic.
Finance Secretary Ralph Recto earlier declined to give more details on the amnesty plan, including its estimated revenue boost and the period that would be covered by the program, saying the proposal was still under study.
But Recto noted that the bill, which has yet to win Cabinet approval, could include an extension of the recent estate tax amnesty program.
The DOF last pushed for a general tax amnesty program during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who partially vetoed a 2019 law granting amnesty to people who failed to pay correct taxes in 2017 and before.
Specifically, Duterte struck down the provision covering all unpaid internal revenue taxes, citing the absence of safeguards such as lifting bank secrecy and allowing the automatic exchange of information. Such measures, officials said, would have deterred delinquent taxpayers from underreporting assets or net worth.
At the time, the finance department estimated the general amnesty would have raised only P6.8 billion without the safeguards, compared with P13.6 billion if they had been in place.
But Duterte retained the provisions on estate tax amnesty. The deadline for the estate tax program was extended to June 16.
Recto said the Marcos administration’s proposal would address the shortcomings cited in the 2019 veto.
This year, the government plans to borrow P2.6 trillion from lenders to plug a projected budget deficit of P1.6 trillion, equivalent to 5.5 percent of gross domestic product. The drive is expected to push the debt stock to P17.36 trillion by year’s end.
DOF’s Adriano said the country’s debt-to-GDP ratio is expected to decline to 58 percent by 2030, from the projected 61.3 percent this year.
