Tax exemption not best way to help poll workers: DOF

MANILA – Tax exemption is not the best way to support those rendering election services, particularly public school teachers, the Department of Finance (DOF) said on Thursday.

Arvin Quiñones, director of the DOF Policy, Research and Liaison Office, made this remark after Senator Sherwin Gatchalian questioned during the Senate hearing the DOF’s stand against a proposal to exempt from tax the honoraria and allowances of the teachers serving the elections.

“If we really want to support these sectors, for example, these teachers who are rendering election services, then the tax exemption is not the best way to address them. That’s our position in this matter. We have to address them, we have to support them, but the tax system is not the best way to do it,” Quiñones told the Senate Committees on Ways and Means and Electoral Reforms and People’s Participation.

Gatchalian, however, argued that the Tax Code already has several exemptions.

“I’m looking at the tax code. There are several exemptions already. 13th month pay is exempted. In other words, my point there is exempting is not extraordinary, it’s not something outside the tax code. If we can exempt 13th-month pay, we can exempt prizes and awards in sports competitions, how can a one-time exemption every three years make it inefficient?,” Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian is the author of Senate Bill 1193 seeking to let poll workers receive the full amount of their honoraria, travel allowance, and other benefits.

Senator Pia Cayetano, chairperson of the Senate Committee of Ways and Means, said teachers are in a unique position considering that serving during the elections is out of their mandate.

“It’s almost as if they don’t have a choice in performing this duty. I’m aware and I understand the concern of the DOF that this might open like a flood gate of request for exemption for everyone dahil lahat naman nangangailangan (everyone is in need). I’m very familiar with that dahil (because) I’ve always tried to support the needs of persons usually discriminated by the society,” she said.

Lawyer Rozanne Dela Cruz-Reyes of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) said they support the measure, saying poll workers are not Comelec employees and the honoraria and allowances given to them are not professional fees.

For Anne Loraine Garcia of the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) Law and Legislative Division, the agency’s mandate is to implement what is stated in the law which qualifies honoraria and allowances of poll workers as taxable.

Aside from Gatchalian, Senators Nancy Binay and Leila De Lima also filed their respective Senate bills exempting the honoraria of poll workers.

In a statement, Department of Education Secretary Leonor Briones said they understand the intention of the bill but the DOF and the BIR are in the best position to provide comments on the matter.

The House of Representatives earlier approved on final reading its own version of the measure.