As you probably know, payroll supervisors all over the Philippines have been shifting anxiously in their chair cushions for over a month now. That's because President Arroyo in mid-June 2008 signed RA9504, which eliminates income tax for minimum-wage earners, among other innovations; and no doubt employees have been buttonholing paymasters everywhere about getting the promised benefits lickety split.

We at Balmori Software issued an article about that development (click here to read the article), which article unfortunately could not be the final word because the BIR still hasn't released implementing guidelines for that law. Public consultation by the BIR is still ongoing; thus the official publication of the law has not yet occurred. All payroll supervisors and payroll software designers in the Philippines, including Balmori Software, await the BIR's guidelines with bated breath, eager to get started on the changes necessary to implement the new tax relief measures. (Click here if you are a user of Balmori's SURE! PayMaster.)

As this tax development continues to unfold, we receive yet another regulatory gift from another government agency, the Philhealth.

In a circular dated 15 May 2008, the Philhealth announced that henceforth it is requiring employers to submit the RF-1 report monthly, instead of quarterly. This new reporting frequency takes effect starting August 15, covering July 2008 remittances. (Click here to download the Philhealth circular, the announcement flyer, and prototype RF-1 form.) 

For payroll supervisors who still prepare payroll manually, the change is very simple and hardly even noticeable. They'll continue submitting the same RF-1 report, in the same format, only they'll do it monthly instead of quarterly. For those who use a payroll software solution, they'll have to ask their software suppliers to make a change to their software algorithms, so that the application produces RF-1 reports monthly rather than quarterly. 

And a technical point: for that subset of software users who submit the RF-1 report by diskette, be warned that there is a new format specification for the electronic submission of said report. (Click here if you are a user of Balmori's SURE! PayMaster.)

Questions? Reactions? Write to balmori@balmorisoftware.com.  

 

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