MANILA, Philippines – In a unanimous vote, the Senate on Monday, May 29, approved a bill seeking to extend the period of availment of estate tax amnesty by two more years.

All 24 senators voted in favor of Senate Bill No. 2219 or the proposed Tax Amnesty Act – a measure that sets the deadline of estate tax amnesty on June 14, 2025.

If it becomes a law, besides extension availment, applicants may also pay through installment within two years from the original date of its payment without civil penalty and interest. The measure also seeks to expand the coverage of the tax amnesty and include the estates of those who have died on or before May 31, 2022.

The bill was authored by senators Migz Zubiri, Bong Revilla, Loren Legarda, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Sherwin Gatchalian, Bato dela Rosa, Robin Padilla, and Cynthia Villar.

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.

The House passed a similar measure on May 15.

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House votes to extend estate tax amnesty until 2025

Can Marcos family avail themselves of amnesty?

At a House hearing in April, Bureau of Internal Revenue Assistant Commissioner Ma. Luisa Belen said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. cannot avail himself of the tax amnesty program for his family’s alleged P203 billion unpaid estate taxes.

Belen said that there is an “exception” in the Tax Amnesty Act, which covers the case of the President. 

The BIR official was referring to Sec. 9 (a) of the law, which states that the tax amnesty “shall not extend to estate tax cases which shall have become final and executory and to properties involved in cases pending in appropriate courts … falling under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG).” – Rappler.com