ANGARA TELLS GOV'T WORKERS: YOUR MIDYEAR BONUS IS FATTER

GOVERNMENT workers' midyear bonus envelops, particularly those that are P82,000 and below, are fatter this year, according to a senator.

Senator Sonny Angara, chairman of the Senate committee on ways and means, announced that the benefit of Republic Act 10653, which he authored and sponsored last year, mandating tax exemption for bonuses not over than P82,000, is applicable to the midyear bonus scheduled to be given to state employees this month.

RA 10653 provides that the 13th month pay and other benefits, including productivity incentives and Christmas bonuses not exceeding P82,000 being given to both government and private sector employees should be tax-free.

"Make no mistake about it. Even the midyear bonus is covered by this law. That's why I'm reminding employees who are receiving the midyear bonus to carefully check your envelops or your ATMs," Angara said in a statement.

Before RA 10653 was signed into law in February last year, only bonuses not exceeding P30,000 were exempted from tax.

"Tinaasan natin ang tax exemption cap sa mga bonus para naman mas malaki ang maiuuwi nilang (workers) pera sa kanilang pamilya," he said.

The midyear bonus is equivalent to one month's basic pay, and will be given on top of the 13th month bonus employees are entitled to every December.

The budget department announced that it has allotted a total of P32 billion- P26 billion for civilian personnel and P6 billion for unformed and military personnel- for the payout this year of midyear bonus of government employees.

Under Budget Circular 2017-2 issued on May 8, the bonus will cover all civilian, uniformed and military personnel - as long as they've been in government service for at least four months of service since July 2016.