BPOs should consider waiving tax incentives — FIRB
The Fiscal Incentives Review Board (FIRB) is asking Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) firms in the Philippines to consider waiving their fiscal incentives.
This comes as the board released a report suggesting that most BPOs are “milking” their tax privileges not to sustain their operational viability, but to increase their profits.
FIRB Secretariat Head Juvy Danofrata said giving up these perks could help reduce the government’s cost of sustaining investment activities.
In the agency’s latest assessment, most outsourcing agencies located in the country were shown to have total dividends that surpassed the value of their tax perks.
“This suggests that the tax benefits received by BPO firms are not that necessary, as these only increase their profitability,” Danofrata stated.
The DOF official also highlighted that the incentives received by the locators, especially BPOs, come with a set of rules that they need to adhere to, including operating within an economic zone as mandated by the law.
BPO giant Concentrix is among the first companies to give up its incentives to provide about 100,000 employees the choice to work from home.
Danofrata said Concentrix’s decision to surrender its tax perks strengthens the FIRB’s findings that BPOs can survive even without taking any benefits from the government.
