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Friday, March 29, 2024

Refund workers’ money, labor group asks BIR, DoF

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Labor group Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines demanded that the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Department of Finance to return in cash an estimated P5 billion which it claimed were unlawfully collected from minimum-waged workers nationwide for seven months since 2008.

In a Jan. 24, 2017 ruling, the Supreme Court nullified several provisions of BIR Internal Revenue Regulation 10-2008 that disqualify Minimum Waged Earners from tax exemptions on their bonuses and other compensation benefits such as overtime pay, hazard pay, holiday pay, and night shift differential pay including fringe benefits in excess of P30,000 including those who received their 13th month pay bonus.

However, the BIR continued to collect taxes on the basic wage, bonuses and other benefits from millions of minimum-waged workers nationwide from June to December 2008 despite of a law exempting minimum-waged workers from such taxes starting July 6, 2008, according to LU-TUCP spokesperson Alan Tanjusay.

He said that the High Court also directed the BIR to grant a refund or allow a refund through withheld tax adjustments or a claim for tax credits by those subjected by IRR 10-2008.

The labor group insists a cash refund including its legal interests the collected money earned from 2008 to 2017.

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“We cannot understand why the BIR and the DOF is quick to squeeze money from the workers but it takes forever for them to return those.

Shame on you! Those are workers’ blood money,” Tanjusay said.

“Some minimum-waged workers who were subjected to tax may have remained a minimum-wage earner up to this day but they cannot claim for tax credit because they are exempted from income tax. Some may have been promoted and some may have been unemployed. Some have become OFWs. Some are already deceased,” Tanjusay said, adding: “In fairness to the workers subjected by the regulation, the best option here is a cash refund.”

The SC ruling stemmed from petitions filed by lawmakers, individuals and labor groups including the TUCP, he added.

 

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