No Tax

POST NO BILL Now all of a sudden I have an increase 

THIS MAY SOUND STRANGE, BUT like most taxpayers, I find myself smiling as soon as that tax reform bill was signed. 

Coming in as a speeding locomotive, Senate Bill 1592 or better known as the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), has had a vote of confidence from the Senate late last year, and got inked by the president himself a few weeks later, a move that hit a happy nerve for me, enabling me to feel better since. 

Now I can see some development on my take-home pay every fortnight and at the end of the month. Now I can shell out a little whenever a friend borrows money from me. At least someone is doing something that would give employees a bit of a breather after years of grumbling behind the scenes.

But I have mixed feelings on the said bill. After more than a decade of dealing with its intrusion on my paycheck, I could probably say that I now have something I can call my own. That might be too naïve for me to say it, but it felt like my birthright was given back to me.

It remains to be seen, though, if this bill will stand the test of time because the flipside of it would mean that there has to be a cut somewhere for it to offset the increase most of us are receiving through our pay. And like most ordinary workers, that’s the risk I’m willing to take instead of dealing with it from a compulsory standpoint.

If prices of such commodities increase to high heavens following the signing of that bill, which is happening anyway even before it was inked, then let them have it. If the taxi fare is skyrocketing to the stratosphere, then you have a choice not to ride on it. It’s almost like a given thing. I can always find ways where I could get an affordable vegetable or milk or sugar in town. I just don’t want something I’m not totally into it, that general feeling I have with tax since I started working. 

They can increase practically every item out there, but an unhampered pay, so to speak, with the exemption of other deductions such as PhilHealth or SSS or Pag-IBIG, is always a welcome sight. In my case, I’m already thinking of buying a new pair of socks from a nearby mall as soon as I received my first pay slip of the year.

Things are beginning to take shape. This law covers only a modest amount of boost from employees everywhere and yet they are grabbing it by the neck. It’s just a tidbit, nonetheless, but it’s been a while since we had that smile on our faces. 

Of course, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is simply doing its rounds then. We know their contribution to the development of our community anyway, what with the collection they can get from some high paying employees and businesses around. With the intervention of the bill, however, the fight now has gone external, that is, our fight against the expected increase of our basic commodities. 

I wouldn’t consider this a runaway hit as a consumer because I now have to deal with other matters such as wrestling with that hefty price tag following the promulgation of the said law. Nevertheless, it still takes away some of the burden of budgeting my income, day in and day out. 

I felt good since last month, and I hope it stays that way. So thanks in part to this law, which, I believe, is long overdue. It is as if I’ve posted a “Post No Bill” sign right in front of my house, and knowing I wouldn’t be bothered again for a very long time.