Passage of tax perks bill expected in 2 weeks

A delayed tax reform bill that would significantly cut corporate taxes will be passed in two weeks, according to Sen. Ralph Recto.

This is the latest promise for a measure that could have already been passed last year if it were not for a change of heart in the Lower House.

Recto said in an online forum on Friday that lawmakers would soon pass the much-awaited bill called CREATE, or the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises.

The bill is the latest iteration of a tax reform package that seeks to cut corporate taxes and rationalize tax breaks. Since the package was first introduced about three years ago, the draft has gone through several revisions.

CREATE is the version of the tax package passed by the Senate in November last year. It is considered the most balanced of all versions of the tax package to the extent that the Senate bill even won over some of its critics.

“Where are we now with CREATE? We are on the last mile. Because of the last minute rally from the [Lower House], we at the [Senate] thought our work was done last Christmas,” Recto said during the first quarter general membership meeting of electronics exporters group Seipi.

The tax reform bill is under a bicameral committee conference, a delay that came as a surprise even for the Senate especially after the Lower House earlier promised they would simply adopt the Senate’s version.

But instead, CREATE— which, among other provisions, would cut the corporate income tax for smaller businesses from the region’s highest rate at 30 percent to 20 percent—got dragged back into the legislative mill. The Lower House suddenly wanted to iron out its differences from Citira, or the house version of tax package. Citira stands for Corporate Income Tax and Incentive Rationalization Act.