Income tax take in 2010 seen to arrest its decline

The government expects to collect more from income tax next year on hopes of global economic recovery, the Finance department said. As economic output will likely be better next year, taxes on income generated by individuals and corporations will be 10.42 percent more at P519.37 billion than P470.34 billion in 2009. Gross domestic product (GDP), or the value of goods and services produced within the country, is seen to grow between 2.6 percent and 3.6 percent in 2010, better than the 0.8 percent to 1.8 percent growth this year. With the stronger-than-expected economic growth during the second quarter at 1.5 percent, the country’s economic managers are expected to tweak anew macroeconomic assumptions. As this year’s economic growth is slower than last year, income tax collection will likely be lower by 2.5 percent than P482.24 billion in 2008. In 2010, the government is targeting to collect 13.53 percent more in corporate income tax to P309.64 billion from P272.73 billion even if corporate income tax has been reduced to 30 percent this year from 35 percent due to Republic Act 9337, otherwise known as the Expanded Value Added Tax Act of 2005. Tax collected from individuals will likely churn in P156.96 billion, up by 12.86 percent from P139.07 billion. However, the government assumed other sources of income tax would go down by 9.8 percent to P52.77 billion from P58.52 billion. -GMANews.TV