TRAIN collections exceed revised 2018 target – DOF

The Duterte administration’s first tax reform law attained its collection target last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) announced yesterday.

In a statement, the finance department said the tax reform for acceleration and inclusion (TRAIN) act yielded 168.4 billion in net revenues in January to December last year, higher by 8.1 percent against the government’s downward-revised-target of 163.3 billion.

The Durterte administration had originally set its 2018 TRAIN net revenue target at 189.9 billion, but the DOF lowered the goal by 126.6 billion after delayed implementation of the e-invoicing system and the fuel market program, which were all under the law.

Based on the DOF data, the largest revenue gains were seen in tobacco excise, auto excise, and documentary stamp tax collections.

Personal income tax (PIT) collections were also higher than expected due to better compliance and an increase in the number of registered taxpayers. Taken together, these highest gainers contributed around 151.5 billion of the 68.4 billion of additional revenue from TRAIN.

Auto excise tax revenue was above target by 16.2 billion, owing in part to higher purchasing power for vehicles.

Documentary stamp tax revenue was also above target by 14.7 billion, because of higher transactions value and better collection efficiency.

The DOF previously estimated that the implementation of TRAIN gave a combined 112 billion per month in additional income to the country’s individual taxpayers, most of them compensation earners, and in unconditional cash transfers to the poorest households and senior pensioners.

With TRAIN, taxpayers with a net taxable income of 1250,000 and below are exempted from paying personal income taxes. Those earning less than 18 million annually also get PIT cuts under the new tax measure.

For this reason, the DOF said that Filipino taxpayers have reaped a cash bonanza of 1111.7 billion in PIT cuts in 2018 with the implementation of TRAIN law, the first package of the Duterte administration's Comprehensive Tax Reform Program (CTRP).