Reward for tax evasion informers gets House nod
THE House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a measure that will grant rewards for informants against tax cheaters.
House Bill 9306 got unanimous votes from House solons as they expressed beliefs that stronger tax enforcement is the key to economic recovery.
The measure seeks to increase to P10 million the P1 million cap as rewards to informants of tax frauds, violations of revenue and customs laws and smuggling.
Authored by Magdalo Party-list Rep. Manuel Cabochan, HB 9306 provides a comprehensive and rationalized grant of rewards to informers for the discovery of violations of internal revenue and customs laws.
“The measure will also help us improve tax collection efficiency, which will be crucial to economic recovery as we strengthen existing revenue streams. Passing new tax laws will be very hard in a recovering economy. The next best thing is to plug loopholes and catch tax cheats,” Cabochan said.
Other authors of the bill said : “During periods of economic recovery, tax-to-GDP tends to recover with the economy itself. Add momentum to tax collection, and we will be able to fund resiliency-building measures.”
Cabochan blamed the amendment of 1959 vintage Republic Act 2338 as among the factors that discouraged tax informers and whistleblowers from cooperating with the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs.
RA 2883 has been amended by Republic Act 8424 or the National Internal Revenue Code and RA 108634 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act by reducing to ten percent the 25 percent share of informants from the amount reward they could are entitled to receive.
Under HB 9306, informers will be entitled to ten percent of revenues, surcharges or fees recovered and fine or penalty collected or P10 million in reward, whichever is lower.
“Whistleblowers instrumental in the discovery and seizure of smuggled goods are entitled to 20 percent of the actual proceeds from the sale of the smuggled and confiscated goods or P10 million, whichever is lower.
The proposed measure also grants the person falsely accused of violating tax laws the right to file criminal or civil action against the informant of the wrong information.
