Castelo seeks 5-percent tax holiday to help businessmen
Quezon City-District 2 Councilor Winnie Castelo is proposing a business tax holiday or discount of five percent for all registered enterprises in the city, regardless of size and nature of business.
The tax relief is contained in Proposed Ordinance No. 469.
Castelo said the tax discount would be a way of helping businesses in the city get through and hopefully recover from the coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic.
He said these establishments contributed P12,452,104,602.99 billion to the city coffers in 2020.
Based on this collection level, the proposed tax relief would amount to P623 million, he said.
He added that the proposed discount would cover only business taxes.
Castelo pointed out that the series of pandemic restrictions has affected all businesses, from malls to sari-sari stores.
“Those that could not bear the difficulties have been forced to close shop. Others opted to downsize their staff or limit their employees’ workdays. Many malls offered to waive rentals to avoid the closure of their tenant-stores,” he said.
He stressed that the tax holiday proposal would be “an effective fiscal policy measure that will help the business sector minimize costs and expenses, and thus will facilitate their recovery and continuance amid the pandemic.”
“It’s also a means for the city government to give back to various businesses, big, medium or small, and their workers,” he said.
Two other councilors co-authored the tax holiday proposal. They are Councilors Karl Edgar Castelo of District 5 and Melencio Castelo Jr. of District 6.
The measure follows their filing of a proposed ordinance that would grant all city employees, regardless position and the nature of appointment, a productivity incentive equivalent to one-month salary.
