The Bureau of Internal Revenue main office in Quezon City. (File photo from Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines—The amnesty period for delinquent estate tax accounts has lapsed on Monday (June 14) but the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has no power to extend it as the bill allowing it to do so is still unsigned by President Rodrigo Duterte.
BIR Deputy Commissioner Arnel Guballa on Monday said the bureau was waiting for policy direction from the Department of Finance (DOF) as the two-year implementation of estate tax amnesty drew to a close on June 14.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has yet to respond to media queries as of afternoon of Monday.
Estate tax amnesty, which started in 2019, allowed the BIR to collect only 6 percent of the decedent’s total net estate at the time of death, for deaths registered on or before Dec. 31, 2017.
The two chambers of Congress had approved a bill to extend estate tax amnesty by two more years, or until June 14, 2023.
In a text message on Monday, Sen. Sonny Angara, who authored the bill in the Senate, said the bicameral-approved enrolled bill was sent to the Office of the President last June 9.
“Most likely the BIR will stop processing applications in the meantime,” Angara said.
Last week, Internal Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay said the bill awaiting Duterte’s signature will likely have a retroactive effect on June 14.
But as of last week, Dulay said the BIR had yet to receive word if and when Duterte will sign the measure into law.
Last May, BIR Deputy Commissioner Marissa Cabreros said 43,700 taxpayers had availed themselves of estate tax amnesty, allowing the country’s biggest tax-collection agency to generate an additional P2.5 billion as of May.
The DOF had projected a P6.3 billion collection from the real estate tax amnesty.
Two other amnesty programs—the extended tax amnesty on delinquencies and the BIR’s voluntary assessment and payment program (VAPP) for unpaid 2018 taxes—will both end on June 30.