THE Philippine Chamber of Cooperatives, Inc. (Co-op Chamber) said Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) rules are hindering them from accessing tax exemptions.
In particular, the group is asking the government to remove the requirement that individual co-op member present a tax identification number (TIN) to secure a certificate of tax exemption.
“Since 2010, we have been complying with it. But a lot of cooperatives nationwide cannot comply. That is why if you look at our data, only a few have complied,” Noel D. Raboy, chairperson of the Co-op Chamber, told reporters.
“And there are cooperatives now that have (been penalized by) the BIR. Some of them are negotiating compliance. And this is our problem because there are a lot of reports that they just want to settle (the penalties),” he added.
He said that the tax exemption is a benefit granted to cooperatives under the Republic Act (RA) No. 9520.
“Under the law, wala kaming babayaran (we pay no tax) on the interest of our deposits, our share capital, and also our final tax,” he said.
“Kaya lang may mga requirements na binigay ng BIR ay (The requirements set by the BIR are) outside the requirements of the law. They said that to get our tax exemption, we need to submit yearly the TIN of the members,” he added.
He said smaller cooperatives can comply with this, but those with about 100,000 members find it hard to comply.
“We want to get rid of it so we can grow and we can really avail ourselves of the exemptions,” he added.
He said that the penalties vary by cooperative, with one cooperative assessed around P300 million in penalties.
According to the group, the TIN requirement issue is being addressed in Senate Bill No. 1431, the proposed amendment to the Cooperative Code.
“The Co-op Chamber, as a member of the technical working group in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, is just awaiting the schedule of the Committee Meeting in the House of Representatives to finalize its version of the proposed revisions,” it added. — Justine Irish D. Tabile