EDITORIAL - Promise of no new taxes was a lie

When Noynoy Aquino was sworn in as president, he promised no new taxes, in keeping with the pro-poor image he was trying to project then. But after just a year into his six-year term, all that seems to have been forgotten.

One of Noynoy's pet officials, BIR chief Kim Henares, recently announced she has placing under income tax coverage all extra contributions that government and private workers are making to state-owned insurance companies such as the GSIS, SSS and Pagibig.

Fixed income workers are usually the lowest earners across all the income brackets, yet tax payments paid religiously by this sector make for one of the biggest and most reliable chunks of revenues in the entire BIR collection take.

But instead of being given tax breaks in recognition for their carrying the brunt of the tax burden, this government is now punishing them with even more taxes. And for no other reason than that this government thinks they have been saving a little too much for their future. 

Rather than reward their diligence, discipline, hard work and sacrifice which resulted in better savings for their own future, this government instead wants to punish those who exhibited these traits that are so admirable in people.

It is not the fault of fixed income earners, who have been paying the right taxes, if the government falls short of its tax expectations. If anyone is at fault, it is the BIR itself for not cracking down on businessmen and professionals who have been cheating on their real incomes.

Only just a few days ago, it was reported that businessmen and professionals pay only an average of P5,800 each year in taxes, a dirty lowdown crying shame considering that, every month, many fixed income earners pay much higher taxes than that. Yet BIR sees nothing amiss in this.

And that is not all. Henares made the announcement just a couple of weeks after Forbes released its latest annual list of 40 richest Filipinos. That none of whom are in the BIR's own list of top taxpayers is a discrepancy that the BIR is so damnably oblivious to.