INCREASED TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL TAXPAYERS

Both houses for Philippine Congress are now about to hold it's joint committee deliberations to put into law an increased personal and allowable deductions for individual taxpayers. Currently, a single taxpayer enjoys Php.20,000.00 deduction as a allowable deduction from his/her taxable income, for a head of the family individual is Php.25,000 and for a married individual Php.32,000. An additional Php.8,000 allowable deduction from a head of the family or married individual for every dependent to a maximum of 4 dependents.

The Philippines' House of Representatives and House of Senate are proposing an increased personal exemption to Php.50,000 for a single, head of the family or married individual and an additional Php.25,000 per dependent for the two latter types of individual taxpayer. This will be the government's answer to help ease the effect of rises prices and escalating cost of living. I believe it is just appropos that this bills be passed into law as this will very much directly benefit individual taxpayers. Hopefully, the Filipino people will already be hearing this good news in effect by the end of this end of June.

WAGE INCREASE IN CEBU CITY

I am a waged corporate warrior but a talk of a WAGE INCREASE gives me mixed emotions. Already, Metro Manila and in the CALABARZON region have been given Php.20.00 WAGE INCREASE and Region 10 have been granted a Php.12.00 increase on COLA (Cost of Living Allowance).

Let me explain my concerns when an impending wage increase is in the horizon. I see the move as an ignition to all other increases in goods and services. It also further pushes some companies to hire contract workers where tenure of an employee is forever contract-based and not be able to fully avail of the benefits of a regular employees. It further extends the gap of assuring job stability.

But then again, this is a problem of on a chicken-and-egg scenario. Whoever raises the bar higher will have to assume that the other will simply just have to catch up. My wish for the Philippines is that we harness the benefits of natural gas.

Making Financial Reports Turn to Gold

You cannot literally make a financial report turn to gold but you can make it be a tool for your company's gold rush. After the busy season for those in the Accounting Profession, May is then the time to hand-in those reports to external users.

There are two major regulatory agencies which requires the submission of Financial Statements. The first would be the Bureau of Internal Revenue who requires the Financial Statements to be submitted on or before the 15th of April, annually. The second major regulatory agency which needs the Financial Statements is the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Audited Financial Statements are required or used twice in the summer months by the SEC. The first would be on or before the 30th of April (after the Financial Statements have been stamped received by the BIR) and the second is on or before the 30th of May 2008. The second submission requires a format known as General Form for Financial Statements (GFFS). The GFFS is a specifically formated template by the SEC which contains the data from the Annual Audited Financial Statements (AAFS). This is to a requirement for corporations with a gross revenue of at least Five Million Pesos (PHP.5,000,000.00). These Financial Statements are indeed worth in gold judging by their relevance.

Financial statements are relevant not only to the users in the organization but equally more important to entities outside the corporation. These are the regulatory agencies and creditors especially banks who see these financial statements in gold.

Philippine TAX AMNESTY Deadline Today

The deadline for the Philippines' Bureau of Internal Revenue's Tax Amnesty Program, otherwise known as R.A. 9480 or the Tax Amnesty Act of 2007, is today - May 5, 2008.

The original deadline set by the Bureau was on March 6, 2008 but was later amended by the Department of Finance through Revenue Memorandum Circular 29-2008. The amnesty program covers internal revenue income taxes of taxable year 2005 and prior years. Take note though that this only covers Income Taxes and does not include liabilities for withholding taxes for expanded and compensation withholding taxes. The amnesty fees ranges from Php50,000 to Php500,000 for corporations, depending on the company's authorized capital stock, while Php50,000 for individuals.

What this TAX AMNESTY does is that it erases Income Tax Liabilities of 2005 and prior years and will in effect, generally exempts the taxpayer on BIR Audits for the said years. For the detailed information, regulations pertaining to this Law can be found on the Bureau of Internal Revenue Website (www.bir.gov.ph) on how to avail of the Philippine TAX AMNESTY Program.

I Follow Comments on Cebu iMaginations

I have enabled a "Do Follow Comment" on my Cebu iMaginations site. This would be my way of thanking my visitors who dropped a comment on any entry on my posts by linking them back through a "Do Follow Comment" Plug-in.

Cubicled Playground is back on Business

Okay, okay. I thought I wouldn't be going back to blogging on my Cubicled Playground but had open this again. For reasons my dear friends will soon discover and I may not need to say it.

So there we go, Cubicled Playground is back online with a new look, hopefully a new feel and a logo to add on.



So welcome back again, friends to my Cubicled Playground!