Philippines aims to submit general tax amnesty bill by end of 2026
The proposed amnesty would cover taxes administered by the Bureau of Internal Revenue, while a separate vehicle tax disclosure programme is under study.
The Philippine Department of Finance aims to submit a general tax amnesty proposal to the House of Representatives before the end of 2026, Finance Undersecretary Rolando Ligon Jr. said. Officials are still revising the draft and gathering information.
Ligon told reporters that further information was needed to make the amnesty successful and address additional taxes to be collected. The bill has not reached Congress, and hearings are expected to start in 2027.
The proposal would apply to taxes governed by the National Internal Revenue Code that the Bureau of Internal Revenue administers. President Marcos included the measure in his State of the Nation Address, and it is a legislative priority.
An earlier attempt at a general amnesty did not proceed in 2019, when then-president Rodrigo Duterte vetoed those provisions in Republic Act 11213. He retained the provisions granting an estate tax amnesty.
Separately, Ligon said the department was examining a voluntary disclosure programme concerning imported vehicles with understated values or insufficient tax payments. The proposed Bureau of Customs initiative would be an administrative measure outside the general amnesty bill. It remains at an early stage of study.
