Exempting teachers’ poll pay from taxes up to Congress – DepEd
Exempting teachers’ poll honoraria from tax is up to Congress through law amendment, Education Undersecretary for Administration Alain Pascua said.
Pascua said that the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) agreed on the 20 percent tax exemption of volunteer teachers during the national and local elections.
But, Pascua said there was no amendment to the law granting such exemption to teachers who will serve in the May 2022 election.
“May batas na kailangang i-amend bago ma-implement ang exemption,” Pascua said.
Pascua said that congress was not able to made amendment to the Internal Revenue Code “kaya hanggang ngayon, ang ating honoraria at allowances, hindi sila tax-exempted.”
Pascua, who also heads DepEd’s Election Task Force, said this as a response to the inquiry of teachers’ groups.
Members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) held a protest action at the Comelec office to address the concerns of teacher-poll workers related to the elections.
“There’s still so much that we need to discuss and resolve, and we only have so little time left to do so, they need to start acting with urgency. We’ve been raising these concerns to the Commission since May 2021. While they have at certain points publicly expressed support to some of our calls, they need to go beyond that and actually engage in the democratic process of consultation and collaboration with us,” ACT Secretary General Raymond Basilio said.
