Congress urged to exempt poll duty allowance from tax
HOUSE Assistant Majority Leader and Quezon City Rep. Precious Hipolito Castelo is urging Congress to exempt the election duty allowance of public school teachers from income tax.
In Bill No. 10661, Castelo said, “Teachers play important roles during elections. They exert time and energy to protect the sanctity of every ballot and facilitate the conduct of peaceful and clean elections.”
“Because of the perils teachers experience during elections, it is fair and just that they be properly compensated for the service they render. In the same manner, it is also appropriate that the compensation they will receive will not be subjected to income tax,” Castelo, a member of the Lakas-Christian Muslim Democrats (CMD), said.
Under the Republic Act (RA) No. 10963 or the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, she said all forms of compensation, including allowances, are subject to income tax.
She pointed out that unless an exemption law is passed, teachers would have to declare their election duty allowance and pay the corresponding tax on it.
“For teachers of higher rank, this could even mean paying more in income tax, since this could push them to a higher tax rate. Baka yung allowance nila ay mapunta lang sa tax,” Castelo stressed.
She added that she hoped Congress could rush the approval of her proposal so the exemption would apply to next year’s national-congressional-local elections.
The Commission on Elections, (Comelec) has issued Resolution No. 10727, which sets the rates of allowance of teachers who will serve in the May 9, 2022 polls.
The rates are P7,000 for the chairman of the electoral board in each voting precinct, P6,000 for each board member, P5,000 for the supervising education official, P3,000 for each support staff, and P3,000 for medical personnel.
Additionally, the board chairman and members, supervising official and support staff will receive P2,000 each as travel allowance.
All poll workers would also be entitled to an anti-COVID-19 allowance of P500 each, and five days of service credit.
