Castelo proposes tax holiday for COVID-19 medical frontliners

By JOHN CARLO M. CAHININAN

A tax holiday has been proposed for tens of thousands of medical frontliners currently in helping in country’s fight against the current health crisis brought by the coronavirus.

Quezon City Rep. Precious Castelo made the proposal in recognition to the contribution of health workers who are facing various hazards in fighting the COVID-19 crisis considering that “they are highly vulnerable to infection, being directly exposed to the virus as frontline workers.”

Under Castelo’s proposed Health Workers’ Tax Holiday Act of 2020, the income of “qualified health workers” for two months—from March 15 to May 15 this year—would not be included in the computation of their income tax.

In effect, their earnings for two months would be tax exempt, according to Castelo.

She noted that of income tax has been withheld for the covered period, it would be applied as part of payment for the remainder of 2020 when taxes are paid in April next year.

Qualified health workers according to Castelo’s proposal are those “engaged in health and health-related work, and all persons employed in hospitals, health infirmaries, health centers, rural health units, barangay health stations, clinics, and other health-related establishments, whether public or private, and shall include medical, allied health professional, administrative and support personnel regardless of their employment status.”

“These heroes are willingly putting themselves in harm’s way to safeguard public health. Thus, it is but right and just to reward them if only to show the nation’s gratitude and appreciation for their service,” said Castelo.

The coronavirus has infected more than three million individuals, of whom over 200,000 have died.

In the Philippines, there were almost 8,000 cases as of yesterday, of whom 530 have died and 975 have recovered based on the latest figures released by the Department of Health (DOH).

The proposed legislation gives the Secretary of Finance the authority to extend the two-month period covered by tax relief by not more than three months depending on the COVID-19 crisis.

Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)