The beginning of the year signals the start of the business renewal season. At the various city and municipal halls, business owners are now scrambling to beat the deadline to avoid penalties.
The process for the renewal of business permits is as follows:
1. Compilation of business and other documents (old mayor’s permit, declaration of sales, tax documents, official receipts of payments etc.)
2. Presentation of documents for evaluation and assessment
3. Payment of official fees (city tax, garbage fee, sanitary fee etc.)
4. Claiming of Business Permit
The process stated above is the simplified and generalized version. Each local government unit follows its own system. From what I’ve been hearing from some of my businessmen friends, most LGUs here in Metro Manila have already optimized their systems for the benefit of business owners. Unfortunately a few still have dismal systems. I asked a friend of mine whose firm provides business renewal services to give me an assessment of the various LGUs. He gave me a ranking from the most to the least business-friendly. Here it is:
- Makati
- San Juan
- Pasig
- Manila
- Muntinlupa
- Paranaque
- Marikina
- Mandaluyong
- Quezon City
I can’t really say I was surprised with the ranking he gave to Quezon City. For the past several years, I have been hearing my friend complain about how the system in Quezon City Hall has gone from bad to worse. He has two words to describe it: Red Tape.
But that’s not the worst. His biggest gripe concerns the evaluation of past income from which the amount of city tax and other business fees is computed. My friend says QC’s evaluators routinely impose their own estimates without due consideration to the veracity of the documents submitted by business owners. He cites the case of one of his clients who opened a barber shop just last month (December). He explains that since it was just a new business the barbershop naturally did not make much money yet. It just grossed P2,850 as of December he says.
Now, here’s the big shocker. The evaluator who checked the barbershop’s papers rejected the declared amount and imposed an income declaration of P200,000 from which the total amount of city tax will be derived.
My friend says this has been going on at QC City Hall for the past few years now. He says things even took a turn for the worse. Now, the imposition of arbitrary amounts is no longer dependent solely on whimsy. QC Hall’s evaluators are now actually following some kind of standard. Just go to city hall and you’ll find a memo about this posted somewhere.
The issue here is not so much that QC Hall’s evaluators refuse to accept the fact that not all businesses make money and that some actually do not make anything at all as in the case of businesses that were registered but whose operations did not actually push through. My friend explains that it’s more about the fact that the amounts imposed by the evaluators are excessive — abusive even.
Now I’m wondering how Quezon City Hall manages to curb graft and corruption within itself while such a practice is in place. Only a fool would think that no haggling and no “offers” to assist in the circumvention of this city tax scheme are ever made between the evaluators/assessors/collectors and the city’s business owners.
Perhaps, Quezon City Mayor Sonny Belmonte should look into this — if he doesn’t already know about it.
Sa Makati nag lagay ng satellite office lahat ng barangay kaya walang kahirap hirap dun mag renew ng Mayors permit. Parang one- stop shop andun na lahat, with complete documents at dala mo pera, after payment, the following day pwede na makuha ang mayors permit. walang padulas yon.
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Our company is also a victim of the abuses of Quezon City Hall. Our agency has been in operations since 2003 as a security agency. For 3 years, we were assessed based on our income for the previous years as per our records. Starting 2007 we were assessed on the amount that they perceived we earned for the previous years. We still tolerated it because we didn’t have any choice and it was affordable on our part. But for this year 2010, we are so disappointed because they assessed us for 18 million pesos where in fact we only earned less than 5 million for 2009. Ang sabi namin kahit they will examine all our books of accounts and every records that we have just to prove that we don’t earned such amount for 2009. Ayaw talagang pirmahan ng treasurer kasi dapat ang basis 18 million pesos daw and we will be paying more than P160,000 for the entire year. Since we could not really afford to pay such amount dahil hindi naman talaga namin kinita, we just closed our business in Quezon City rather than penalized to pay said amount.
Sana ma correct nila this kind of procedure because they are not encouraging small businessmen to do business in Quezon City. Sana mabasa ni Mayor Belmonte ang ganitong palakad ng mga tao niya sa City Hall. They are not helping their constituents they are in fact, pernalizing them.
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Agree ako kay Faith. Sometimes in 2006 nag-work ako sa QC. Ako nag process ng Business Permit renewal namin. Bale 2nd year pa lang ng Company plus the fact na yung product ay hindi ganun kabenta. For 2 years wala talagang income as in zero. Yung ginagastos ng company for salaries ng tao at iba pang expenses ay naggagaling lahat sa personal pocket ng mga may-ari kaya nakakasurvive pa ang operation. Pero nung mag renew kami ng Business Permit, ayaw pumayag ng Quezon City Hall na zero income. Sa mga zero income meron silang standard amount na dapat i-declare mo para lang malaki ang mabayaran mong permit fee. Tama ba naman yun? Wala kang income pero kelangan mag declare ka ng minimum amount na sa kanila naggaling para lang malaki ang bayaran mo na permit fee. Grabeee, feeling ko harassment ito.
Sana ito ang bigyan ng attention ng mga local officials dahil ang kawawa dito yung mga maliliit na negosyante..
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I just want to share my sad experience with QC taxing scam.
I am a working as an IT specialist. Then 2010 I decided to have a business because I want to become a successful entreprenuer.
So what I did is I used my credit card to buy just 1 line of product for computers. I bought only this type of product because I don’t have enough funds to have another set of items to sell. What I thought as a product that I would be able to sell easily turns out to be a product of high quality that people will not buy maybe for 1 year or 2. Also, I found out that there are other brands that are very close competitors for my item. Because of this, I find it necessary not to quit my job.
2010 sales gross only amounted around Php 2000. Credit Card debt for the initial investment is Php 10000. Then I also payed for custom charges around Php 2000. Then slash BIR tax to it, and it further makes my business non-profitable. It’s already a negative profit but still I had my aspirations to continue….until the day of renewal.
I have all receipts and book of accounts to back me up, but come the time of the evaluation, they are forcing me to accept the concept that I have a gross annual receipts of Php 100,000. I explained to the evaluators that I am not CD-R king who sells all lines of products. Evaluators said that they have a “minimum quota” for business categories. So they said I have to pay Php 15000.
I talked to the Head Treasurer and basically heard the same thing.. “minimum quota”. So what he did is that he slashed Php1000. I pointed out that it still is too much because they are basing it to their freaking minimum quota.
So I went out and proceeded to QC Public Attorneys. I talk to them explained everything but they said they don’t know the rules for treasury department. One of their colleagues even commented, “..Baka naman minimum kotong hindi quota..” But still they can’t do anything about it. They refered me to real estate head attorney.
When I arrived to real estate head attorney, they said that they only handle real estate so they refered me to Tax and Amusement dept head. I went over there just to hear that their boss is the head treasurer who I had already spoken with but did not listen to what I had explained.
So this guy from tax and amusement did not help me at all and commented that , “marami kasing mga business na under declaring, and they are loosing millions!..if they will do changes sa systems nila na nakaprogram na for the minimum quotas, they will lose billions ..” I silenced myself for a while because deep in side me I really feel what he said was bullshit.
Points to consider:
1. why the hell will they lose billions for a program with a minimum quota? first and foremost, we pay taxes that give them their salaries, so why “lose” money ????
2. their database program fixed values?? now that’s noob shit because all it takes is just one honest evaluator, 1 mathematician, 1 programmer to change the values whatever that program is.
3. thousands of corporations doing under tax declaration? god damn i’m being more than honest paying taxes to BIR, and I am not a corporation in the first place.
*so i told this last attoeney that, “i will never spent my job salary to pay this tax due to an over estimated minimum quota that they are forcing me to have”
God damn QC and it’s corrupt system and employees. No wonder why small people don’t engage in business any more.
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bp Reply:
January 17th, 2011 at 9:31 am
ron,
i feel your pain. from what i’ve heard, this sort only happens in quezon city. there must be a way to put a stop to this.
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ron Reply:
January 18th, 2011 at 2:17 pm
i had forwarded this issue to Ben Tulfo, I hope they can help out with this.
And calling attention to all citizens in Quezon City fallen victim by this taxing scam of QC, post your issues here or to any other forums until all people in the Philippines hears us.
I strongly recommend that you also bring this to the media, XXX, imbestigador , news papers, AM radio stations.
I had already started doing it and I would need the help of other victims of this abusive system that the QC municipality has.
Remember, this will not change if no one else would step up!
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It’s quite laughable that Quezon City refers to itself as a “Business Friendly City”. In comparison to Manila, the average time it will take you finish all the requirements there will be around an hour lang and as for the business tax, it was only around 5k, kaya ako na gumagawa ng renewal pagdating sa Manila
As for Quezon City, the worst experience you can ever encounter especially for a newbie, nung una ako nag apply dun for a new business, it took me over a month to finish everything, the reason: Fire Inspector humihingi ng lagay, Electrical inspector naman took 2 weeks to find the time to visit my place kahit na araw araw ako tumatawag dun begging them to come. So the solution, mag under the table ka na lang para wala ng inspection, I leave that to my accountant, sya na bahala maglagay sa mga kilala nya dun…
But that’s that not the worst part, last year I paid around 8k for the business renewal, but this year I was assessed 15k eventhough kunti lang tinaas nung gross income ko from the previous year, magkano kaya ako aabutin next year.
You feel really bad pagnangyayari sa to’, para silang swindler at magnanakaw sa lagay na yan
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NOW i understand why makati still best for business. manila sucks! i have a small business here but i am asked to pay 18k for business permit – legal basis – an ordinance declared null and void by SC
i cant see mayor lims’ (in small letter) campaign of LINISIN at IKARANGAL ANG MAYNILA done. manila city hall is full of crap, i mean corrupt officials. one even offered a compromise. i pay half the fee, he’ll get 10k from me. This is very filipino!!!!
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I’ve been processing my business permit since Monday, January 17. I brought the exact amount of what I paid last year plus additional P1,000 in case there will be another increase for this year which has been the case for the past 3 years. After tax assessment, I was shocked to find out that there was an increase of P3,000 on city tax and an additional increase of P100 on new sticker/plate. So, I decided to go back today since all I have to do is pay and process the business permit. I got there at 9am and I finished the payment, just the payment at around 3:30 in the afternoon.
What I don’t understand is the fact that when you ask them why there is an increase, all they can say is “nagtaas na”. I asked again why. And all they can say is “nagtaas na”.
Isn’t it funny that we pay higher taxes and they cannot even give us a better explanation than “nagtaas na”??? Isn’t it funny that we pay higher taxes and the system inside what they call “state of the art tax hall” does not even improve??? So why do we have to pay our taxes then????
CRAP!!!!
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nag-renew rin ako kahapon. ang dala kong pera ay yung binayaran ko last year. syempre nagdala ako ngkonting extra para kung sakaling may increase. hindi naman natin maiiwasan sa panahong ngayon ang mga increases. pero sobrang na-shock ako kasi yung CITY TAX na binayaran ko na 50 pesos last year ay 5,000 pesos na ngayon. bakit nagkaganon? so tinanong ko yung nag-assessed. ang sabi ko ay, “Sir, baka nagkakamali ka?” sabi niya ay hindi raw. yun lang ang sinabi niya. sana pinaliwanag niya kung bakit ganon kalaki ang increase. kinalabasan, hindi ako nakapagbayad kahapon kasi short ako ng 5,000.
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bp Reply:
January 21st, 2011 at 9:04 am
“short ako ng 5,000″
if this wasn’t tragic it would be funny.
i wonder if mayor herbert bautista even knows about this.
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Nakakainis talaga yan QC city hall, deadline kahapon kaya ang haba ng pila pero instead of announcing the extension on a much earlier time, sinabi nila late na kaya ung nagpagod dun kagabi sa pila nasayang lang di tulad sa manila, as early as 3pm sa afternoon may announcement na ng extension of payment….yan ba ang business friendly city nyo!!!
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i checked this out and it turns out that qc taxing system was pushed by the counsilors of that city to further give qc enough funds for local projects.
well that by the way sucks and who knows, they passed it for more kurakot. kaya damn qc officials
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I’m sure para mas marami sila makurakot nyan, ayaw ko na magbayad para sa bagong kotse ng mga magnanakaw dyan sa QC, I will be doing something about this next year
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http://goquezoncity.ph/qc-resources/business-permits-licensing-office-bplo/comment-page-1/#comment-653
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hindi lang po sa QC ang nagtaas ang business permit fee
pati rin po dito sa San Pedro, Laguna
yung last year na P1500 na binayaran ko for my 6units Computer Shop, P5200 na ngayon…
Sama talaga ng loob ko, pinalalabas pa nila na 120,000 daw ang kinita ko last year…
pupunta ulit ako para linawin kasi di ako nagbibitaw ng pera hanggat di ako nalilinawan…
sana hindi tayo makuntento lang sa salitang “nagtaas na”
we have our own rights to know WHY!
kasi pera natin ang tinatanggap nila…
pera pera ang usapan…
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Bad trip sa makati, sobrang takaw ng mga taga municipyo, 40,000 na ang nailalagay namin para sa buss. permit, hangang ngayon, 1 month na di parin na-rerelease. kainis!!!
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I have been fighting the unjustifiable taxes impose by Q.C. Local government since 2004 when the Columnist by the name of Neal Cruz of Daily inquirer wrote an article with a title, “Greedy Quezon City Councilors plans to raise Real Estate Tax.” I hand delivered my letter of inquiry to 20 Q.C. Councilors and copy furnished the former Mayor Feliciano Belmonte Jr. why is there in need of raising the taxes considering that the Local Government has unspend 2 billion pesos. That was on year 2004.
It is the duty of any government employees to reply within 15 days upon receipt any letter address to them, but unfortunately, not one of the 20 Q.C. Councilors ever reply to my letter. This is how callous our local government is.
Then again, last year 2009, I confronted Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, one on one, and asked him why there was a drastic increase on the Mayor’s Permit. He rebuff me and said, “If you can not pay your Mayor’s permit, then close up!’
Undaunted, I investigated the legality of the drastic increase and found out that the mere issuance of a Memorandum of the then Chief City Treasurer of Q.C. was the reason of the increase, without the benefit of any City Ordinance.I obtain two certification from the City Archive and the record section of the Q.C. Treasurer’s Office certifying that there was no City Ordinance as far as the increase is concern.
Using the two certified documents, I filed an Administrative case against the former Chief City Treasurer of Q.C., Victor Endriga Ph.D. But, I was told by the receiving clerk of Office of the OMbudsman that for almost 20 years, since that treasurer was still in Pasig, not one complaint against him ever prospered.
I also attended the Public Consultation on proposed Parking Fee in Q.C. sponsored by Councilor Suntay. Then again, I caught the Councilor lying when he said Q.C. revenue was only 4 billion pesos when the Newpapers was already declaring that Q.C. ranks no. i in revenue generation and hit more than 10 billion pesos. Another cheating the Councilors did is to invite the whole Q.C. Barangay Council to represent as public parties, when in fact, Barangay Council members is the lease representative of Q.C. residence. These groups are beholden to City Hall and therefore not reliable party during Public Consultation on enactment of City Ordinance.
Feeling that Q.C. Local Government has graviously violated their Oath of Office, I run as Independent Q.C. Mayor Candidate last May 10, 2010 election. Had I won, I would lower drastically all sorts of local taxes including Real Estate Tax here in Q.C. I would even go to the extend to declare TAX HOLIDAY until we consume all the savings made by Q.C. local government.
I believe that the Local Government has no moral ground to enrich itself by over taxing its constituents. The reason for taxes is to provide fundings on specific projects, and it has never been the intention to commit social injustice by unjustified and unilateral excessive taxes in any form. And this is what is happening in Q.C.
I believe that we, residence of Quezon City should stand up and resist the Local Government Officials from abusing their Oath of Office of making extremely hard for the tax payers to meet their obligation.
This is the times of hardship wherein people can hardly make both ends meet because of high prices on everything. It is unfair for Q.C. Local government to impose its illegitimate and abusive tax system.
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