BAGUIO CITY – The City Assessor’s Office will not entertain fixers processing the tax declarations of residents wanting that their lands, buildings and machineries will be declared with the local government for taxation purposes.
City Assessor Maria Almaya Addawe disclosed there are some residents who are still availing of the services of fixers in the processing of their tax declaration and there are some fixers who attempt to show other properties that are not actually the true properties of the concerned individuals just to get lower assessment and real property taxes but this is same illegal.
She added appropriate charges could be filed against the fixers and the residents who availed of their services once it will be found out that they used other properties purposely for lower assessments as the same could now be easily detected through the newly adopted Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology that is now in place in the local government.
As of December 31, 2018, there are over 168,000 registered tax declarations covering lands, structures and machineries with the City Assessor’s Office. Of the said number of tax declarations, more than 65,000 cover lands while the rest cover structures and machineries in the different parts of the city.
Addawe advised residents to voluntarily declare their real properties with the local government because once the City Assessor’s Office discovers the existence of undeclared properties, it will compute the real property taxes due to the local government since the structures and machineries became liveable and useful thus that could result to the imposition of penalties and surcharges on taxes of the real property.
However, she admitted her office if understaffed with only 7 duly licensed assessors assigned to assess lands, structures and machineries in the city’s 128 barangays taking the city government a long time to facilitate the eventual declaration of lands, structures and machineries of the residents.
“We will continue to do our part in ensuring the issuance of the appropriate tax declarations for real properties in the different parts of the city but it is still best for our people to voluntarily visit our office and declare their real properties to be immediately assessed for the correct real property taxes,” Addawe stressed.
The City Assessor’s Office is empowered to declare the real properties of residents living in the different parts of the city and to compute the real property taxes that should be paid by the individuals with declared properties.
Addawe claimed the city government is aggressive in facilitating the declaration of all real properties in the city to help in compelling residents pay the real property taxes due to the city, one of the sources of revenue that bankrolls the implementation of priority development projects and enhance the delivery of basic services to the people
By Dexter A. See
