ACT: Don't tax honoraria, allowances for poll workers
MANILA, Philippines — The Alliance of Concerned Teachers on Sunday asserted that honoraria and allowances for teachers rendering election service should not be taxed since there is no legal basis to do so.
The Election Service Reform Act passed in 2015, grants honoraria and allowances to members of Electoral Boards. The Bureau of Internal Revenue imposed a 5-percent withholding tax on compensation given to teachers who served in the 2018 barangay elections, which ACT formally questioned in a petition still pending at the bureau.
In a statement on Sunday, ACT said taxing the honoraria "brought forth a string of problems to teachers that causes bitterness to teachers as they perform their otherwise noble and nationalist duty of facilitating the people's exercise of their right to vote."
It said that honoraria and allowances in elections prior to the passage of ESRA had not been taxed.
Although teachers were supposed to get tax refunds if the honoraria did not exceed the allowable tax exemptions for the year, ACT said it has received reports of its members not receiving their refunds yet. This, despite being "obliged to undergo a tedious process involving several unnecessary paperwork in order to process the refund."
ACT said the travel allowances for Electoral Board members who attended Board of Election Inspectors training for the May 13 elections were also taxed 5%. Under the ESRA, poll workers are entitled to a travel allowance of at least P1,000.
House Bill 8542 filed in November and which is still pending at the House Committee on Ways and Means specifies that compensation received through the ESRA "shall not be included in the computation of gross income and shall be exempt from income tax."
Reps. Antonio Tinio and France Castro, both of ACT Teachers party-list, said in the explanatory note of the bill said that although ESRA increases the compensation for poll workers, "the law is silent as to the tax treatment of such compensation."
They said taxing the honoraria and allowances "destroys the spirit and intent of the ESRA, which is to compensate the hardships of persons rendering election service."
Rep. Estrellita Suansing (Nueva Ecija), committee chair, is quoted in a Manila Bulletin report last month as saying she supports passage of the bill and that the panel is waiting for position papers on the issue from the Department of Finance, Commission on Elections, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the National Tax Research Center.
ACT said Sunday that it will hold a protest at the Bureau of Internal Revenue office in Quezon City on Monday, May 6.
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