THE Board of Investments (BOI) has urged registered business enterprises (RBEs) to submit a letter of intent to the agency if they wish to transfer their current regime of fiscal incentives to Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) law or to tax perks provided by the recently enacted CREATE to Maximize Opportunities for Reinvigorating the Economy (CREATE MORE).
In a virtual press briefing on December 26, Trade Undersecretary and BOI Managing Head Ceferino Rodolfo reminded RBEs that the CREATE MORE prescribed that the deadline for submission is on December 31.
“They can e-mail it to us up to the last minute of 2024,” Rodolfo said.
Regardless of the investment value, BOI-registered projects before the implementation of Republic Act (RA) 11534 or the CREATE law can transfer to CREATE law incentives scheme.
Projects registered under pre-CREATE law only have income tax holiday (ITH). Those that will transfer their registration to CREATE law will enjoy additional enhanced deductions.
On the other hand, BOI-registered projects amounting to P15 billion, or those that need approval from the Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB), are advised to move their registration from CREATE law to CREATE MORE.
The shift to CREATE MORE will allow the RBEs to enjoy longer incentives of up to 27 years depending on their activities.
The incentives could be four to seven years of ITH plus 20 years of enhanced deductions regime (EDR) or 24 to 27 years of EDR.
Export-oriented enterprises may choose to avail of EDR or a special corporate income tax (SCIT) rate of 5 percent of gross income earned in lieu of all national and local taxes, as well as other local fees.
Rodolfo clarified that transferring from pre-CREATE regime to CREATE MORE is not allowed.
He added RBEs that have either started operating or are in the pre-operating stage but have not availed of any incentives can transfer to CREATE or CREATE MORE.
According to the BOI, there are 275 projects that can qualify for the transfer – 119 are already operating and 156 have yet to start their operations.
Only 82 of the 275 projects have signified to the BOI to move their incentives scheme to either CREATE law or CREATE MORE.
Qualified BOI RBEs can email scanned copies of the affidavit of intent to the agency’s Legal and Compliance Service (LCS) at lcssubmission@boi.gov.ph, subject to the submission of two original copies of the document. (PNA)
