ABSTRACT
This descriptive-evaluative research study was conducted to identify the policy mandate, the manner of implementation and outcomes of TRAIN law. Sixty-five implementers and 171 walk-in taxpayers were the respondents of the study. A researcher-made questionnaire was used to gather primary data while secondary data were obtained from office files. The statistical tools used were frequency count, percentage and mean. Thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. Results of the study revealed that the mandate of the TRAIN law was derived from the law itself. The implementation of the law was mainly based on the projects, services and activities related to taxpayers’ awareness program where stakeholders’ participation was “highly involved”. The outcomes revealed that the taxpayers were “aware”, the stakeholders were “very satisfied” and the revenue collection had decreased. A number of problems were identified and corresponding recommendations were made.
Keywords: TRAIN law, mandate, implementation, outcomes
INTRODUCTION
Global and donor interest in developing nations' domestic income mobilization, particularly taxes, has grown (Mascagni et al., 2014; Fjeldstad, 2014). Taxation is increasingly being recognized for its contribution to developing states' capacity and connections with society. Some activists argue that the current international tax structure is dysfunctional, resulting in a race to the bottom to provide appealing, but unsustainable, tax conditions in order to attract investment, hence exacerbating inequality (GSDRC, 2014).
As a developing country in South East Asia, the Philippines must enhance domestic resource mobilization through increasing tax collection (United Nations, 2015). Tariffs, excise taxes, sales taxes, VAT, and other indirect taxes make for the majority of tax revenues in developing countries such as the Philippines and Vietnam (Nguyen, 2019).
In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA), Philippine President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. emphasized that tax administration reform will be in place to increase revenue collections and that tax compliance procedures will be simplified to promote ease of paying taxes. These pronouncements of the president bring to mind the relevance of the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) law.
TRAIN law in the Philippines is one of the biggest life changing laws that has been implemented and creates a big impact on the lives of Filipinos. Republic Act (RA) No. 10963 was passed based on Senate Bill (SB) No. 1592, which contained 31 Senate Bills, 3 House Bills, and 3 Senate Resolutions. This is a thorough and ambitious tax reform that lowers income taxes for 99 percent of individual taxpayers while allowing the government to fund other worthwhile initiatives and its ambitious “Build, Build, Build” programs.
The tax legislation is designed to simplify taxation in order to increase the tax base and make tax payments easier.
TRAIN was established to address the issue of income tax bracket creep, which affects individual income taxpayers, as well as to offer tax relief to employees in the public and private sectors.
TRAIN has so many moving parts that affect so many aspects of our economic lives. The government targets to raise about P2 trillion from the comprehensive tax reform program to help fund the country's massive P8-trillion infrastructure buildup, which is seen to improve people's lives from all ranks.
Despite these good intentions of the law, there have been studies conducted which revealed its weaknesses (Boco et al.); Bonghanoy, Etcuban, Bueno, & Medio, 2019; Furman, 2006; Layug, 2018; Lestari, Wicaksono, 2017; Vega, 2018).
The conflicting views between the intentions of the law and the findings of some studies have inspired the researcher to conduct the present study in order to fill this gap of knowledge.
The study would relate to most of the Ilonggos since this law has changed a lot in the provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC).
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