PCCI to government: Extend pandemic tax cuts for businesses

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is appealing for an extension of tax cuts implemented under the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) until the end of the year to allow businesses to fully recover from the impact of the lockdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a statement yesterday, the PCCI explained that businesses have yet to take advantage of the tax cuts implemented under Republic Act 11534 or the CREATE law, such as reduced minimum corporate income tax and percentage tax.

Under the CREATE law, the minimum corporate income tax was lowered to one percent from two percent, and the percentage tax to one percent from three percent.

The reduced rates expire today, as the law states that the implementation of the lower rates is from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2023.

PCCI president George Barcelon said that a majority of the enterprises in the last two years, at the height of the pandemic, were unable to fully enjoy the tax cut since most of them were in strict quarantine and could hardly do actual business.

“I know there’s a deadline set but when you think about it during the last two years of the pandemic, companies have not really been able to take advantage of it,” Barcelon said.

“I hope that the government (Bureau of Internal Revenue) will consider extending it, hopefully within the end of the year so that we can start for the New Year,” he added.

Over the last two years, most of the companies have had sales dropping, or incurring extra expenses including for transporting employees to and from work.

“The feedback that I had been getting was that the one and a half years when the law became effective, it was not taken advantage of and those deductions have not been maximized,” Barcelon stressed.

The PCCI president also noted that in terms of lowering the corporate income tax (CIT), the Philippines is still behind its neighbors in ASEAN.