Manila, October 2 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Marcos officially signed the "Digital Services Value Added Tax Act" at the Malacanan Palace in the Presidential Palace on October 2, which will impose a 12% value-added tax on non resident digital service providers including Netflix, HBO, and Amazon.
Non resident digital service providers refer to foreign digital service enterprises that have not established physical entities in the Philippines, including digital platforms such as search engines, online marketplaces, cloud services, and online media. In the future, these platforms will need to register with the Philippine Bureau of Revenue (BIR) and pay a 12% value-added tax based on their transaction volume in the Philippine market.
Marcos emphasized at the signing ceremony that this measure is not a new tax category, but an optimization of the current tax system. He further pointed out that the implementation of this law will help bridge the tax gap between local and foreign digital service companies, creating a more level playing field for the digital economy in the Philippines.
Marcos stated that the law is expected to bring about 105 billion pesos (approximately 1.868 billion US dollars) in additional tax revenue to the Philippine government over the next five years, "enough to build 42000 classrooms, over 6000 rural health clinics, and 7000 kilometers of roads." In addition, the law explicitly states that 5% of the tax revenue will be used to support local creative industries to help them gain more resources and opportunities in the fiercely competitive digital market.
It is worth noting that the law grants value-added tax exemptions to online courses, seminars, and training programs offered by private educational institutions recognized by the Philippine Department of Education and the Higher Education Commission. The new law also grants the Philippine National Taxation Office the power to impose punitive measures to prevent or suspend non resident digital service providers who fail to comply with tax regulations in the Philippines.
In recent years, the digital economy in the Philippines has developed rapidly, covering multiple fields from e-commerce to streaming platforms. According to data from the Philippine National Bureau of Statistics, the digital economy in the Philippines will reach 2.05 trillion pesos in 2023, accounting for approximately 8.4% of the country's gross domestic product. (End)