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THE
Senate ways and means committee is set to endorse for
plenary debates this week a counterpart bill raising the
exemption level on individual taxable income from
P32,000 to P50,000, or an additional exemption of
P18,000, Sen. Francis Escudero reported Tuesday.
He added
that the committee is also endorsing an increase in
tax-exemption claims for dependents from P8,000 to
P25,000 as part of a package of benefits promised wage
earners on Labor Day.
Escudero
explained that this means working couples can avail
themselves of P50,000 each in income-tax exemptions,
plus P25,000 additional exemption for up to four
children-dependents, or a total of P200,000 in potential
tax exemptions.
“We are
hoping to bring the bill to the floor during this week’s
session to fast-track approval of the measure that would
provide relief to low-income workers,” he said.
Escudero
added, however, that the ways and means committee
rejected the proposed simplified net income tax inserted
in the House-approved version of the bill and instead
offered to replace this with a 40-percent optional
standard deduction, or OSD, that corporations and
individual taxpayers can avail themselves of to do away
with tedious paperworks that create loopholes in the
income-tax system. |
