Queries flood city gov’t; City treasurer explains real property tax discount

BAGUIO CITY --  The City Treasury Office explained implementation of discounts on the payment of real property taxes following numerous queries from taxpayers based from Republic Act 7160, or Local Government Code.
    City Treasurer Alex Cabarrubias said under the law, there were two forms of discount being implemented by local governments, the advance payment discount and the prompt payment discount.
    He added advance payment discount refers to the payment of real property taxes before Jan. 1 of the following calendar year where the said taxes are applicable, while the prompt payment discount refers to the discount being granted to real property taxpayers who pay their taxes either one time or in equally quarter payments on the taxes due for the quarter.
    The city treasurer said the city government is allowed to grant a maximum of 20 percent discount for the implementation of the advance payment discount while 10 percent will be granted for taxpayers who pay their real property taxes for the present year either on time or through the equal quarterly payments.
    According to him, if the real property taxpayers want to avail of the 20 percent advance payment discount, they must pay their taxes before the end of the preceding year while those that want to simply avail of the prompt payment discount should pay their taxes either one time or on equal quarterly basis for the taxes due for the year.
     Cabarrubias said it is only real property taxes that are subjected to prescribed advance or prompt payment discounts while business taxes are not subjected to such discounts.
    He urged taxpayers to pay their taxes on time so as not to incur penalties and surcharges and help the city government generate the needed resources to operationalize the city’s approved annual budget.
    Cabarrubias also told taxpayers to patronize the city’s online payment of taxes to spare them from the long queues and make it easier for them to transact business with the city government.
    Baguio City is one of the highly urbanized cities that are not dependent on the national tax allocation being granted by the national government as it is able to generate a significant portion of its revenue from internally-generated sources such as local taxes, fees and charges that are levied on the services provided by the city. -- Dexter A. See