Tax on online transactions should come with consumer protection

THE House ways and means committee has passed a measure that would impose a 12-percent value added tax (VAT) on all online transactions. The substitute measure was a consolidation of three other House Bills (HBs) — 6765, 6944 and 4531.

The original HB 6765 was introduced by Rep. José María Clemente “Joey” Salceda, which seeks to amend Sections 57, 105, 108 and 114 of the National Internal Revenue Code to include taxing network orchestrators (e.g., Lazada, AirBnB, Grab) and digital subscription-based services (e.g., Netflix, Spotify).