Tax reforms should not be an election issue, says BIR chief

Want to discuss taxes? Wait until you become president.

Amid Vice President Jejomar Binay’s statement that he would replace her 30 minutes after taking oath as president, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) Commissioner Kim Henares reminded candidates not to promise anything about taxes.

“Tax reforms should not be an election issue,” Henares said in a phone interview yesterday.

“It is a complicated matter that they should leave up to the next president,” she said.

All presidential candidates, except administration bet Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, have expressed support for revisiting income tax cut proposals which languished in the 16th Congress without presidential backing.

Binay, for his part, went as far as promising to exempt from taxes those earning P30,000 and below if he wins. The proposal, according to Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo, would cut state revenues by half.

Henares said tax reforms should concern not only revenues, but also government spending plans which the next administration will be in the best position to discuss and prepare.

“They should leave it up to the next president because your revenue program will depend on the expenditure program,” she said.

“It involves careful planning,” she added.

Liberal Party members Quimbo and Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara lobbied for the measure to slash income taxes in both houses of Congress, to no avail after Aquino opposed it.

The Department of Finance, which oversees the BIR, had said the proposals would cut government revenues by P30 billion per year.

Meanwhile, Henares also shrugged off Binay’s statement of replacing her 30 minutes after taking office, saying it would just “simplify my life.”

“I serve at the pleasure of the President,” she said.