Lower income tax rates effective on first payday in January, says DBM

Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno on Tuesday said that workers would enjoy the benefits of a bigger take home pay as early as the first paycheck of 2018 now that the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Act has been enacted.

"Doon sa salary nila, ma-adjust na iyong withholding tax... It will be adjusted. So iyong take home pay mo, tataas na kaagad-agad. Immediate iyong effect," Diokno told reporters in Malacañang after President Rodrigo Duterte signed the first package of the tax reform and the 2018 budget into law.

With TRAIN, those earning P250,000 or below per year will be exempted from paying income tax.

Those in other income brackets will have lower income tax rates.

Duterte himself said that the TRAIN would take effect beginning January 1, 2018.

"This is the administrations biggest Christmas gift to the Filipino people as 99 percent of the taxpayers will benefit from the simpler, fairer, and more efficient tax [program]," he said. —NB, GMA News