BONTOC, Mountain Province – Early taxpayers in Mountain Province will enjoy huge discounts from the municipal treasury offices once they pay their respective taxes the soonest, Gov. Leonard G. Mayaen said here.
As in the past years, the provincial government grants discounts for taxpayers who will settle their real property and business obligations ahead of the deadlines set by the middle part of next year.
Provincial Treasurer Cawed A. Gamonnac said that for Real Property Taxes (RPT), a 20 percent discount will be granted to those who will pay their taxes for the year 2015 in full before January 1, 2015.
Gamonnac added that a 10 percent discount of the Total Current Tax is being granted to those who pay in full from January 1 to March 31, 2015.
The provincial treasurer further explained that Real Tax Payers are given an option to pay their tax in four equal instalments, without interest, provided that payments are made within the allowed period. The first instalment shall be on or before March 31, 2015; second instalment is on or before June 30, 2015; third instalment is on or before September 30, 2015 and the fourth is on or before December 31, 2015.
However, a two percent interest shall be charge of the amount of delinquent tax, for each month of delinquency until the tax has been fully paid, but not to exceed 36 months.
With this, Gamonnac is encouraging tax payers to pay their obligations earlier not to be charged with interest.
“We want to empower our taxpayers to pay their taxes even before the prescribed deadline so that they will not clog the office of the municipal treasurers due to last-minute payments. We want them to pay their obligations to the government even way ahead of time,” Mayaen said.
Meanwhile, Gamonnac relayed that their office has been conducting forum on Real Property Taxation to the different municipalities in the province. He shared that the Provincial Treasury Office is exerting all efforts, and conducting a tax information and dissemination campaign and dialogue with the all the stakeholders to come up with measures and strategies to intensify collections.
Dialogue with every municipality was participated in by its respective mayor, Sangguniang Bayan Members, Barangay Officials, municipal department heads, municipal treasurer, municipal assessor’s office and other stakeholders.
Mayaen said taxes are the lifeblood of the local governments that is why people who have tax obligations must already pay them so that there will be available resources which could be utilized to bankroll the implementation of development projects as well as enhance the delivery of basic services to the people.
He appealed to taxpayers to avail of the huge discounts offered by the provincial government so that they will no longer think of their tax obligations during the year and that they could also use their available resources for other productive purposes.
By Dexter A. See
