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Friday, March 29, 2024

QC council vows to pass tax measure this month

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The Quezon City Council on Monday vowed to pass a proposed ordinance revising the city’s fair market values of land this month and implement it by January, following a series of 29 public consultations.

Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, the council’s presiding officer, said the 38-member council is bent on fast-tracing the approval of Proposed Ordinance No. 20CC-1441, which would approve the schedule of fair market values of lands, basic unit construction cost for buildings, and other structures for the revision of real property assessments per the provisions of the Local Government Code.

Belmonte, along with several city councilors, city assessor Rodolfo Ordanes and assistant city assessor for operation Sherry Gonzalvo, also promised to mitigate the impact of the adjustment of property values on those paying real-property taxes.

“We will pass on second reading a measure this Monday and another one on third reading next week to grant tax discounts to fine-tune the fair market value adjustment’s implementation in January,” the vice mayor told reporters.

Quezon City Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte shows reporters sample computations for real property taxes under a proposed ordinance that would adjust fair market values of land in the city—for the first time in 21 years—in a press conference at Quezon City Hall on Monday. Belmonte also promised tax breaks for senior citizens and single parents under the new property value scheme. Manny Palmero

Ordanes and Gonzalvo assured there would be no 500-percent increase on real-property taxes if Ordinance No. 20CC-14 is passed.

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“We are taxing assessed value at five percent only,” Gonzalvo said. “What is subject to tax is not the market value, but the assessed value. We get the assessed value by multiplying the market value by five percent [assessment value],” she told the Manila Standard.

Ordanes said while the fair market value would increase up to 500 percent, “we have lowered the current tax assessment level of 18 percent to 5 percent for residential properties.”

As far as commercial properties are concerned, the existing assessment level of 45 percent is lowered to 15 percent under the proposal, he added.

This issue began when the Commission on Audit and the Department of Finance called the Quezon City government on its failure to adjust the fair market values of land and building costs over the past 21 years.

District 3 Councilors Allan Benedict Reyes and Franz Pumaren, District 1 Councilor Alexis Herrera, District 4 Councilor Raquel Malañgen, and District 2 Councilor Roderick Paulate also filed two separate proposals granting tax discounts of up to 10 percent to senior citizens and solo parents who are legitimate property owners.

“The additional discount on the annual payment of real-property tax will greatly benefit senior citizens of Quezon City, majority of whom depend solely on their monthly pensions, which is often not sufficient to pay for their daily needs, particularly expenses on medicines,” Reyes said, referring to their Proposed Ordinance 20CC-175.

Under Proposed Ordinance 20CC-176, an additional five percent real-property tax discount is granted to single parents who are registered owners of residential properties as indicated in their real property tax declarations.

“Being the sole breadwinner of the family, most solo parents are experiencing economic difficulties, as such, it is proper that qualified solo parents should be given discounts to augment their financial capacity,” said Malañgen, herself a solo parent.

Councilors Reyes, Pumaren, Herrera, Malañgen and Paulate came up with their proposals to ease the planned tax hike under Proposed Ordinance No. 20CC-141.

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