ANGARA CONFIDENT DUTERTE TO PUSH FOR INCOME TAX REFORM IN FIRST SONA

Senator Sonny Angara is confident that President Rodrigo Duterte will push for income tax reform in his first state of the nation address (SONA) on Monday.

"I expect nothing less from the President. He has already put income tax reform among the top of his 10-point socioeconomic agenda so I'm sure he'll prioritize tax cuts for our workers in his first SONA. We are looking forward to hearing how he would specifically go about with overhauling the tax system," said Angara, the Senate's champion for tax reform.

For his part, Angara has filed Senate Bill 129 which seeks to adjust the levels of taxable income to inflation to ease taxpayers' burden and to make the tax system more equitable and progressive.

Under his proposed measure, those earning an annual taxable income of not over P70,000 will be exempted from tax.

"We set the lowest tax bracket at P70,000, taking into consideration the prevailing minimum wage, to make the tax table consistent with RA 9504 which exempts minimum wage earners from paying income tax," the lawmaker explained.

The bill also raises the top tax bracket from an annual taxable income of P500,000 to P1.25 million.