Documentary stamp tax removal mulled

A WINNING congressional candidate said he will seek the removal of the documentary stamp tax (DST) on personal documents, citing its negligible contribution to the government’s coffers while it unduly burdens ordinary Filipinos.

“We’re not touching the DST on bank loans, insurance policies, or property sales,” Raymond Adrian E. Salceda, who won as district representative of Albay, said in a statement on Monday. “This is about cleaning up the tax code and giving people relief from needless compliance costs.”

The bill that he will file in the 20th Congress, which will start in mid-July, would amend seven provisions of the Philippines’ revenue code to make it clear that documents involved in commercial and financial transactions would only be taxed by DST.

Mr. Salceda said the fiscal impact of his proposal is “negligible,” noting that the bulk of DST revenue came from formal financial transactions, which collected P116.3 billion in 2022, with revenues generated on personal documents accounting for less than P1 billion. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio