August 16 - 31, 2016
BUSINESS NEWS
PHILIPPINE ASIAN NEWS TODAY
DOF keeps senior discount,
some VAT exemptions
Senior discount and
value-added
tax
(VAT)
exemption on food and
medicines
will
remain
intact under the Duterte
administration’s tax reform
package, the Department
of Finance (DOF) assured
yesterday.
In a statement, Finance
Spokesperson
Paola
D.
Alvarez said that senior
citizens will continue to
enjoy
the
20
percent
discount on purchases or
transactions
along
with
exemptions from the VAT
on food and medicines.
However,
Alvarez
said that VAT exemption
on items and services
considered as unnecessary
will be removed.
“The VAT exemption
granted to seniors when
dining in restaurants, would
have to be lifted because
such discounts are usually
availed of by affluent
senior citizens who can
well afford anyway to do
away with this
Alvarez said.
privilege,”
To illustrate, Alvarez
said a senior citizen who
can afford to eat at a fancy
restaurant
that
charges
him with a bill of P1,000,
the exemption from VAT
he will get is P120. “Now,
this amount of P120 is
something
he
doesn’t
really need because he can
afford to spend P1,000 for
a meal.”
“Now if we compare
this to a senior citizen who
has to make ends meet for
him to be able to afford his
maintenance medicine, the
P120 saved for VAT would
go a long wa