Delinquent real property owners in Paranaque City have until March 31 this year to avail of a one-time real property tax amnesty.
Mayor Edwin Olivarez has signed Ordinance No. 19-32 granting a general amnesty to all delinquent property owners from payment of surcharges and penalties for the past five years.
Olivarez said this would allow property owners “a chance to recover from penalties, surcharges, and interests.” The tax amnesty program started January 1 and will end on March 31, according to the ordinance.
Under the ordinance, the amnesty covers all real properties and improvements that have not been declared for assessment purposes and are thus not included in the city’s assessment rolls, as well as real properties whose real property taxes have not been paid for the last five years.
However, properties with pending or protested cases with the courts are not qualified to avail of the amnesty.
Olivarez said the rising number of taxpayers affected by economic misfortune for the past years have experienced hardships in paying their basic taxes, fees and charges to the city government, according to Olivarez.
“As a consequence, these unpaid impositions have incurred surcharges and penalties making even more difficult for taxpayers to settle their obligations,” he pointed out.
To address these financial burdens, Olivarez said, the city government through the city council, “deemed it reasonable to grant a three-month tax holiday to real property owners.”
This is the second tax amnesty program under the Olivarez administration. When he assumed office in 2013, Olivarez immediately declared tax amnesty after realizing that the city coffer was empty with billions of bank loans incurred by the past administration.
City Treasurer Dr. Anthony Pulmano said this year’s tax amnesty won’t have any public auctions for tax-delinquent properties in the city anytime soon.
However, the tax amnesty shall not apply to real properties that have already been auctioned or are currently being settled or paid under a compromise or similar arrangements, Pulmano said.
He added that payments of owners availing of the tax amnesty should be in cash or manager’s check while personal or company checks will not be accepted by the treasurer’s office.
