SMEs paying 30% tax while big firms pay close to nil, DOF says

SMEs paying 30% tax while big firms pay close to nil, DOF says

This is a huge issue which the government wants to correct.

Too many laws providing tax incentives and benefits to companies have essentially exempted big corporations from paying taxes, while the small fry suffer with the whopping 30 percent duty, the Department of Finance said.

In a statement, Finance Undersecretary Karl Kendrick Chua said most of the local firms paying the uniform corporate tax rate are small and medium enterprises, while their bigger counterparts enjoy a host of tax breaks.

“The present fiscal incentives system (in the country) has been suffering from policy overload such that there is now a proliferation of incentives laws granting tax and duty exemption privileges,” Chua said, pointing out that some companies even “double-dip” by availing of more than one set of perks under different laws.

The government gave away P104 billion worth of investment incentives in 2015 alone.

Chua sais bulk of these perks went to companies engaged in electronic manufacturing, followed by outsourcing services and logistics.