Philippine Laws -Simplified | Free Legal Advice

Welcome! I'm Giancarlo Enrico S. Pozon, a Wushu instructor, investor and Barrister... That's right, Barrister; I graduated from law school and took the Bar Exams, now I'm waiting for the results. I created this blog to make Philippine Law easy to understand for the average person. It's all about free legal advice. There are many law blogs. But the problem is that many of them are written for lawyers and law students. They use words that can't be understood by ordinary people. Many lawyers, judges and law students consider themselves as superior to most human beings because of their knowledge of the law. It bothers me since the law is supposed to serve society. Since the law is meant to serve society as a whole, it is important that is must be understood by everybody. This does not mean that we should all become lawyers. It means that although law is a highly specialized profession, the first duty of everybody in this profession is to make the law understandable to all; that's why all these articles are free legal advice. Like I said, this blog is about law -but it's for the ordinary people, not the lawyers. It's for the ordinary folk so they will know what is good and bad for them, and that making them aware of the law will help us all improve society as a whole. This is free legal advice for everybody!

Dealing with Local Taxes

Friday, March 9, 2012

Like real estate tax, all other local taxes accrue on January 1 of each year but can be paid in quarterly installments. They are assessed every 5 years from the date they become due, and after the 5-year period, the LGU can't bring an action for the collection of taxes, fees and charges. In case of fraud, however, an assessment can be made within 10 years from the date the fraud was discovered.

The 5-year prescriptive period will be suspended in the following instances:

1.) The treasurer is legally prevented from making the assessment or collection
2.) The taxpayer requests for a reinvestigation and executes a written waiver before the expiry of the 5-year period
3.) The taxpayer is out of the country or can't be found

There are actually 2 prescriptive periods: 1 for assessment and 1 for collection, which means that after there was an assessment, the LGU still has another 5 years to collect.

LGU Remedies

Against a delinquent taxpayer, an LGU has 2 remedies that it can resort to either simultaneously or concurrently at its discretion: judicial (filing of a court case) or administrative, which takes the form of either a dsitraint of personal property or a levy on real property.

Taxpayer's Remedies

1.) File a written protest within 60 days from receipt of the assessment

2.) File a written claim for tax refund or credit within 2 years from date of payment or within 2 years from when the taxpayer becomes entitled to a refund or credit (such as when there is a favorable judgment)

No case/proceeding shall be entertained in any court after the close of the 2-year period. Failure to file the protest of appeal on time will make the assessment conclusive and unappealable. For more info, read this article.

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