MANILA, Philippines – A House bill seeking to delay by another two years the deadline to avail of estate tax amnesty hurdled the lower chamber of Congress on Monday, May 15.

The Duterte administration already once extended the deadline from June 14, 2021 – the date set under Republic Act No. 11213 or the Tax Amnesty Act – to June 14, 2023.

If the House Bill No. 7909 passes into law, the new deadline of application to avail of estate tax amnesty would be moved to June 14, 2025.

The bill also seeks to cover the estate of decedents who died on or before December 31, 2021. The original law only covered up to December 31, 2017.

The measure has numerous authors in the House, but there was no doubt about its eventual passage, since among those who introduced it in the 19th Congress was Speaker Martin Romualdez.

“While the country is now taking steps to heal from the pandemic-driven recession, challenges remain for Filipinos to achieve full and equitable recovery, especially with the emergence of high inflation,” read in the explanatory note of the original bill filed by Romualdez alongside Majority Leader Mannix Dalipe, Senior Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, and Tingog Representatives Yedda Romualdez and Jude Acidre.

“Families with unsettled estate taxes still struggled to comply with the documentary requirements and failed to benefit from the substantial decrease in tax liabilities provided under RA 11213,” they added.

In the Senate, a counterpart bill authored by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and other lawmakers is still pending in the ways and means committee. – Rappler.com