Buwis sa digital economy patapos na

MALAPIT nang matapos ang digital taxation na ipinanukala sa Kamara de Representantes upang masingil umano ang mga malalaking kompanya na nakaliligtas sa pagbabayad ng buwis.

Iginiit ni House committee on ways and means chairman at Albay Rep. Joey Salceda na hindi ito bagong buwis kundi tinatakpan lamang ang mga butas sa pagbubuwis at nililinaw ang batas.

“As I have always emphasized, there are no new taxes here. We are just closing loopholes that could threaten revenue integrity more as the digital economy grows bigger,” ani Salceda, may-akda ng panukalang Digital Economy Taxation Act (House bill 6765).

Ayon kay Salceda aamyendahan ng panukala ang tax code kaugnay ng digital services gaya ng online advertising, at subscription-based digital services na dapat patawan ng Value Added Tax.

“We estimate, based on data from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) 2015, and from consumption patterns, that Filipinos will be paying only 0.01 to 0.09% of their annual income due to this tax administration measure. Not 1%, but 1% of 1%. The richer your household is, the more you will pay, but even then, the highest tax incidence is 0.09% of annual income. Furthermore, the well-off will be paying as much as 77% of the incremental revenues to be collected from this measure,” ani Salceda.

Sinabi ni Salceda na kumikita ang Facebook, Google at iba mula sa mga Filipino pero wala itong ibinabayad na buwis sa gobyerno.

“This is also unlikely to significantly dampen demand, as the digital economy’s development continues to accelerate very rapidly, far faster than the demand effects of closing tax loopholes. The digital economy will grow exponentially over the next several years,” saad ni Salceda.

“They benefit from our country’s taxpayer-funded efforts, but they are not sharing enough in the effort. Mind you, digital transformation is costly. It requires ICT infrastructure and investments in innovation. Given these costs, there should be no free money for giants.”