13th month pay exemption raised

The Senate has approved on second reading a bill that seeks to raise the take-home pay of Filipino workers by increasing the tax exemption cap for 13th month pay and other benefits from the current P30,000 to P82,000.

The original proposal, Senate Bill (SB) 2437, aims to increase the ceiling to P75,000 but Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara, chairman of the ways and means committee and sponsor of the bill, has accepted an amendment by Sen. Ralph Recto to raise it to P82,000.