Taxing Self-employed Professionals in the Philippines

The airwaves is abuzz with the news that many self-employed Filipino professionals are in fact not paying the correct taxes. Indeed, a physician in Makati paid only a 2012 tax of PHP 13,000, in other words barely earning PHP 5,000 per month. One accountant paid only year's tax of PHP 20!!!

Clearly dishonesty is not only rampant among so-called professionals, civic consciousness and responsibility is also dead. A friend of mine once said, "Why pay the correct tax when it only goes to corrupt politicians?" Well to that I say, if every one of us thinks like that, then our country will have no future to look forward to. While corruption is without a doubt a perennial cancer in Philippine politics and governance, it can never be solved if the Filipino populace do nothing about it! As the old saying goes, if we want to change the world, we have to begin with ourselves. Eliminating corruption begins with each citizen paying the correct tax, that will make each of us invested in ensuring that those in government do their damn job well. And how do we send that message to our politicians? We vote wisely, prudently and responsibly.

Corruption is the scourge, the bane and the curse of any nation. It enriches the few but ensures that the vast majority will wallow in poverty, suffering and chaos as manifested by poor public services. Poor public services results in social strain, dampens confidence and discourages investments. Decreased investments in turn will mean fewer jobs which leads to fewer tax collections - which again strains even more the already inefficient and overburdened public service sector and the cycle continues.

Efficiency in governance will begin when the Filipino people rises to the challenge to consciously and forcefully fight for a better Philippines, and unfortunately at the moment, a long road has yet to be taken with commitment. Even then, we have to remember that our success as a nation depends on none other than our collective dreams weaved into the fabric of national development. That is our hope, which is in fact ourselves.