An official on Monday called on the recently-formed government committee on regulatory relief to give priority to making online small business registration easier and to eliminate the registration fees charged by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Albay Rep. Jose Clemente Sarte Salceda made the call in response to the activation of the government committee tasked to promote regulatory relief in compliance with Bayanihan 2.
Salceda, chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, is the author of the provisions of the Bayanihan to Recover as One Act on regulatory relief for business.
Salceda, who is also the author of the proposed Online Small Business Support Services Act that provides online businesses loans, grants and skills training, says many small online businesses want to legitimize their operations as registered businesses, but are struggling with the processes in licensing agencies.
“Online businesses are the saviors of the Philippine economy in this pandemic. Many of them are home-based and are the only source of income for many families,” Salceda said.
“They want to register as formal businesses so they can avail of government loans, grants and other services. They want to register with online payment systems, but it’s not easy to register a business right now.
“Under current processes, you have to face 10 agencies to register a business in the country. It takes 33 days at least to complete these processes, and you have to pay a registration fee with the BIR to pay taxes. Imagine how absurd that is: there is a barrier to paying taxes.”
Salceda prepared a paper, “Recommendations to eliminate Red Tape: A focus on business registration”, as a possible guide for the regulatory relief efforts of the government pursuant to Bayanihan 2. Salceda’s paper maps out a strategy to make single-day business registration possible.
Salceda also urged the BIR to abolish the taxpayer registration fee of P500, which is imposed as an annual fee by the agency.
“It’s absurd to impose a fee to allow people to pay taxes. It is the State who benefits from taxpayer compliance. Paying taxes is not a privilege that people will apply for. It’s a government rule we are happy to see people follow. So, we should not impose barriers to paying taxes,” said Salceda who heads the House’s tax committee.
Salceda also urged the BIR to relax the rules on in-person registration for a taxpayer identification number.