THE bill which seeks to immediately lower the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent from the current 30 percent shall be approved on third and final reading in the Senate before Congress enters recess on Oct. 17, lawmakers in the upper chamber said Monday.
Senate Ways and Means Committee chairperson Pia Cayetano said the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises Act (CREATE) bill must be passed before the break as the proposed national budget for 2021 will be the priority once session resumes on Nov. 16.
âIf we want the business sector to benefit from this, it does appear that we are pressured to discuss it and pass it before the break, otherwise, the earliest would probably be mid-December or third week of December. Thatâs the reality there,â she said.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri backed Cayetano and said both Houses would be very busy with the national budget towards the end of the year.
âCREATE is a revenue-negative measure which actually helps a lot of businessmen with the dropping of the corporate income tax to 25 percent, which is sorely needed in this time of pandemic,â he said.
âWeâre timing it for the next quarterly tax payments for the businesses,â he added.
The CREATE bill, a tweaked version of the proposed Corporate Income Tax and Incentives Reform Act, is still pending debates on the Senate floor.(GMA News)
