The Filipino Government is optimistic that it can overhaul the Philippines' tax regime by 2018 through a two-step approach.

  House Bill No. 4774 was submitted to the House of Representatives on January 17. It is now before the House Ways and Means Committee.

  The Bill would cut personal income taxes as well as donor and estate taxes. It would also broaden the tax base by adjusting excise tax rates for automobiles and fuel and plug value-added tax leakages. It would retain the current exemptions enjoyed by seniors and persons with disabilities.

  Speaking recently, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said the Department of Finance's timetable is to get this first group of measures approved by June 2017, so that it can be implemented partially by the second half of the year. A second bill, including the remaining tax reform measures and most notably a five percent cut to the corporate income tax rate to 25 percent, would then be in place by 2018, when the individual income tax measures would also become effective.