Government to fasttrack release of low-end housing tax exemptions

The Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) are set to issue new rules to further reduce the processing time of applications for exemptions from payment of capital gains tax by homeowners associations of urban poor settlers in their purchase of a housing site using loan assistance under the Community Mortgage Program (CMP).

Secretary Michael Defensor, presidential housing adviser and HUDCC chairman, made the announcement during the recent HUDCC inter-housing agency press conference held in Cebu City.

Defensor said that HUDCC, in earlier talks with BIR Commissioner Rene Banez, along with the National Home Mortgage Finance Corporation (NHMFC), the CMP program implementor, have initially agreed in principle to adopt the new tax exemption rules for CMP projects under a memorandum of agreement being readied for signing.

Under the proposed agreement, BIR shall automatically exempt from payment of capital gains tax the sale of a property to informal settlers using loan proceeds under NHMFC’s Community Mortgage Program.

Meanwhile, during the same forum, Lawyer Angelico Salud, NHMFC president, said that this recent initiative of Sec. Defensor and BIR Commissioner Rene Banez, will further boost land security and housing tenure for the informal housing sector, which is among the priority agenda for housing of Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Earlier, HUDCC also worked for the exemption of CMP on-site housing projects from the registration and licensing requirement of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board including the liberalization of the requirements on road-right-of way for CMP housing sites, Salud added.