Tax Compliance Of I-Café Owners

As taxpayers, i-café owners have to comply and pay the taxes being imposed on businesses by various government entities. There are taxes at different levels of governance. At the lowest level, community tax is levied on individuals, the amount of which depends on the gross income of the person. Also at this level, the barangay (village) government imposes tax according to the number of units in an i-café before the clearance allowing the owner to conduct business in the village is issued.

At the municipal and city levels, the local government units (LGUs) are empowered by law to legislate and impose their own local tax code. The local tax is imposed on the beginning of the year right in time for the renewal of an i-café’s business permit. While some businesses may have not yet known whether they made money on their previous year’s operation, here is their LGU already running for a percentage of their gross income on the year that passed. In the absence of formal accounting, most businesses including i-cafés are assessed their local taxes based on predictive income levels rather than based on the sales figures being declared by the taxpayers.

On the national level, value-added tax for big businesses and percentage tax for the small ones must be filed and paid by taxpayers every month while individual and corporate income tax returns are prepared and the tax dues are paid every quarter.

The annual income tax returns of individual and corporate taxpayers are prepared and filed on or before April 15 of each year. The annual income tax return may or may not require the services of a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) depending on how much was the gross income of the business for the year immediately preceding the year when the income tax return is filed.

With all the taxes I enumerated, would you not want somebody to advise and assist you in complying to all the regulations governing your tax transactions with the various level of government. If only for peace of mind that could result from the knowledge that you have rightfully complied with the tax laws, I should say that having EWM accountants to advise and assist you is not a bad idea. Take note that availing of such kind of service is not necessarily additional cost burden. The assistance of such experts normally results to savings apart from the peace of mind that you will get.