New tax amnesty program

LAPU-LAPU City – The Philippines is eyeing to follow Indonesia’s footsteps and implement a tax amnesty program to improve taxpayer compliance and boost government revenues, the Department of Finance (DOF) said yesterday.

In an interview with Bloomberg TV International, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez said the government is considering a tax amnesty program which may be similar to Indonesia’s.

But Dominguez explained that before such program could be adopted, the government has to step up its campaign against tax evaders and show it is serious in enforcing tax laws.

“The tax amnesty will not work if they don’t believe you can actually go after them,” Dominguez said.

“First, we go after them, show that this government means business and has the political will to stop tax evasion. Then we will design a tax amnesty most likely very similar to what Sri Mulyani devised,” he added.

Indonesia’s tax amnesty program ran from July 18, 2016 until March 31. It encouraged the declaration and repatriation of offshore assets by offering tax incentives and immunity from prosecution.

According to a report by Reuters, the program has so far gathered a total of 745,000 taxpayers who declared $330 billion in offshore assets.

Regarding tax evaders, Dominguez said government authorities have implemented an extensive program to go after them.

“In fact, we’ve already filed a case – probably the largest case filed in recent years of P10 billion pesos against what we suspect is a very large tax evader,” Dominguez said, referring to Mighty Corp.

He said authorities will file more cases against the company after gathering more evidence against them. The government is also looking into “big-ticket” items in the power sector, he said.