Be updated on our latest insights

My son, Khalil, will celebrate his 17th birthday next week. He now stands at five feet and 10 inches and is in senior high school. I had Khalil when I was very young. I was then a pregnant adolescent, still navigating through college, definitely lost and amiss. It was a very difficult period in my life. Without the guidance and support of my family and friends, I am not sure if I would have been able to get through such challenging times.

Change — it may mean alteration, modification, variation, conversion, transformation, or amendment. Whichever way we view it, change will always be part of our lives whether we like it or not. Our Philippine tax laws have been recently amended to lower the tax rates on income received by individual taxpayers to keep up with the changing times. As part of the move to keep up with our neighbors and be competitive, our Congress is now aiming to amend our tax laws to reduce the corporate income tax.

House Bill No. 4157 or the Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Rationalization Act (CITIRA) is on its way to the Senate after being approved on third reading in the House of Representatives.

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has signaled that it will conduct transfer pricing audits with the promulgation of its Transfer Pricing Audit Guidelines under Revenue Audit Memorandum Order (RAMO) No. 1-2019. The Transfer Pricing Guidelines were issued in 2013 through Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 2-2013.

The Passive Income and Financial Intermediary Taxation Act (PIFITA) or House Bill No. 304 hurdled the scrutiny of the House Ways and Means Committee a few days ago. If passed into law, PIFITA will amend certain provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 (Tax Code) on the taxation of passive income and income of financial intermediaries. PIFITA will be the fourth package of the government’s comprehensive tax reform program.

Authorized or not? This question is very relevant to taxpayers who are subject to a tax audit. One should at least know if the Revenue Officer (RO) conducting the audit investigation is duly armed with a valid Letter of Authority (LoA). The Tax Code, as amended, requires the Commissioner of Internal Revenue (CIR) or their duly authorized representative to issue an LoA if it will delegate the examination of a taxpayer.

In less than two months, I will tie the knot with my girlfriend of eleven years. Looking back, I went through failure, heartache, and disappointment but, at the same time experienced milestones and achievements that made me who I am today. Being with someone I cherish made me a better version of myself. As American author Helen Keller put it, “the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” It is better to have someone to rely on.

The royalties that you pay relating to the goods that you import may be subject to Customs duties as part of the dutiable value of the importation. Have you made this evaluation? Are you paying duties on those dutiable royalties? Is there a risk that this will be uncovered during a customs audit?