As the registration for the May 2022 polls opens on Jan. 20, Senator Win Gatchalian is urgently calling for the passage of a bill to grant tax exemption to the honoraria, transportation allowance, and other benefits of poll workers, especially public school teachers.
Gatchalian’s proposed measure, Senate Bill 1193, is seeking to amend the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 so teachers can receive the full amount of their honoraria and other benefits.
“If their pay and benefits every elections will not be taxed, they can get their whole pay,” he said
The Bureau of Internal Revenue started imposing a 5-percent withholding tax on poll workers’ election service honoraria and other allowances since the 2018 barangay elections.
The bill also aims to exclude their honoraria and allowances from gross income.
According to the lawmaker, the proposed measure is the best way to thank teachers and other poll workers for ensuring clean, honest and orderly elections in the country.
Under the Election Service Reform Act, chairpersons of electoral boards are entitled to receive P6,000. Each member of electoral boards receive P5,000. Department of Education Supervisor Officials receive P4,000 each while support staff receive P2,000 each.
A travel allowance of P1,000 is also allotted for each of these poll workers. The ESRA, though, has no provision for tax exemption.
The lawmaker said that despite the continuous service that these poll workers render to ensure the transmission of results, they still have to pay income tax if their annual taxable income, which includes such honoraria and allowances, exceeds the P250,000 threshold under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law.
“Our teachers spent long time to ensure the order and integrity of our elections,” said Gatchalian.
“So we filed this proposed measure to recognize their important role to secure our democracy,” said Gatchalian.
Aside from the necessity of paying income tax despite the poll workers’ arduous work during elections, Gatchalian also laments the process that they have to go through to collect their pay.
To collect their election honoraria and benefits, poll workers have to go to the local Commission on Elections (COMELEC) offices and submit a declaration of exemptions if they earn less than P250,000 annually.
“Our teachers were tired every elections. Still, they need to go through a complicated process to get their pay and benefits,” said Gatchalian.