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THE
Department of Finance on Tuesday night approved the
Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act
9504, the tax relief package law, three days after
getting the third and last version from the Bureau of
Internal Revenue (BIR).
Confirming information earlier shared with
BusinessMirror by Deputy Commissioner Nelson Aspe, the
final IRR has the BIR yielding to industry groups’
clamor to reduce administrative requirements for
companies. As a result, companies will no longer be
required to submit on quarterly basis the alpha list of
MWEs in their employ.
However,
the DOF affirmed the BIR version on one of the most
contentious provisions, the start of coverage of the
new, higher exemptions under the law, sources said.
Under
the approved IRR, informed sources told the
BusinessMirror Tuesday night, the new tax exemptions
under RA 9504 will be computed only effective July 6,
and not January 1, 2008.
The
dispute between the BIR on one hand—insisting on the
half-year coverage only—and the business and labor
sectors on the other, had threatened to spark a lawsuit
questioning the IRR.
Lawmakers who crafted RA 9504, notably Ways and Means
panel chairman Sen. Chiz Escudero, had backed the
business-labor position of a full-year exemption, and
urged the BIR earlier to follow the case law on the
matter of effectivity, as laid down by the Supreme Court
in Umali v. Estanislao.
Under
the third version of BIR, the requirement that companies
submit the so-called alpha lists, consolidated quarterly
lists of their minimum wage earners (MWEs), has been
scuttled, and sources said the DOF affirmed this. |
