[ Act No. 2541, December 21, 1915 ]
AN ACT TO AMEND ACT NUMBERED TWENTY-THREE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINE, KNOWN AS THE INTERNAL REVENUE LAW OF NINETEEN HUNDRED AND FOURTEEN, BY CHANGING THE RATES OF TAXES AND ADDITIONAL TAXES, CREATING NEW TAXES, ABOLISHING OTHERS, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.
By authority of the United States, be it enacted by the Philippine Legislature, that:
Section 1. Section thirty-eight of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 38. Fixed tax upon businesses subject to the percentage tax.-With the exception of the persons mentioned in subsections (b) and (c) of section forty of this Act, every person engaging in a business on which the percentage tax is imposed shall pay a fixed annual tax of two pesos. This tax shall be payable for each calendar year or fraction thereof in which such person shall engage in said business. If his receipts do not come up to the minimum limit established for the percentage tax, he may continue in business without further tax until the first day of the next following year. In any case the amount of his business must be reported quarterly as required in the next succeeding section.
"The fixed annual tax shall be payable before the person subject to the same begins to engage in the business, and thereafter within the regulation period in the month of January during which the other fixed privilege taxes may be paid without penalty."
Section 2. Section forty of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 40. Percentage tax on merchants' sales.-All merchants not herein specifically exempted shall pay a tax of one per cent on the gross value in money of the commodities, goods, wares, and merchandise sold, bartered, or exchanged by them, such tax to be based on the actual selling price or value at which the things in question are disposed of, whether consisting of raw material or of manufactured or partially manufactured products, and whether of domestic or foreign origin. The following shall be exempt from this tax:
" (a) Persons engaged in public market places in the sale of food products at retail, and other small merchants whose gross quarterly sales do not exceed two hundred pesos;
" (b) Peddlers and sellers at fixed stands of fruit, produce, and food, raw or otherwise, the total selling value whereof does not exceed three pesos per day and who do not renew their stock oftener than once every twenty-four hours;
" (c) Producers of commodities of all classes working in their own homes, consisting of parents and children living as one family, when the value of each day's production by each person capable of working is not in excess of one peso.ℒαwρhi৷
" 'Merchant,' as here used, means a person engaged in the sale, barter, or exchange of personal property of whatever character. Except as specially provided, the term includes manufacturers who sell articles of their own production and commission merchants having establishments of their own for the keeping and disposal of goods of which sales or exchanges are effected, but does not include merchandise brokers."
Section 3. Section forty-one of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 41. Sales not subject to merchants' tax.-In computing the tax above imposed, transactions in the following commodities shall be excluded:
"(a) Things subject to a specific tax;
"(b) Agricultural products when sold by the producer or owner of the land where grown, or by any other person
other than a merchant or commission merchant, whether in their original state or not."
Section 4. Section forty-two of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 42. Percentage tax on printers and 'publishers.- Printers and publishers shall pay a tax equivalent to one jrg per cent of their gross receipts; but persons engaged in the publication or printing and publication of any newspaper, magazine, review, or bulletin appearing at regular intervals and having fixed prices for subscription and sale shall not be taxed on receipts from sales of, subscription to, or advertisements in such publication; but this exemption shall not apply to any publication the principal purpose of which is the publication of advertisements."
Section 5. Section forty-three of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 43. Percentage tax on contractors, warehousemen, and others.-Contractors, warehousemen, proprietors of dockyards, and persons selling light, heat, or power, as well as persons engaged in conducting telephone or telegraph lines or exchanges, and proprietors of steam laundries, and of shops for the construction and repair of vehicles of any kind, and keepers of hotels and restaurants shall pay a tax equivalent to one per cent of their gross receipts."
Section 6. Section forty-four of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 44. Percentage tax on carriers and keepers of stables and garages.-Keepers of livery stables and garages, transportation contractors, persons who transport passengers or freight for hire, and common carriers by land or water, except owners of boats taxed under the laws administered by the Bureau of Customs, owners of a single banca who habitually operate same themselves, and owners of a single two-wheeled vehicle who habitually drive same themselves, shall pay a tax equivalent to one per cent of their gross receipts."
Section 7. Section forty-five of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 45. Amount of tax on business.-Fixed taxes on business shall be collected as follows, the amount stated being for the whole year, when not otherwise specified:
"(a) Distillers of spirits, two hundred pesos;
"b) Brewers, two hundred pesos;
"(c) Rectifiers of distilled spirits, two hundred pesos;
"(d) Manufacturers of tobacco, twenty pesos;
"(e) Manufacturers of cigars, twenty pesos;
"(f) Wholesale liquor dealers-
"1. In city of Manila, two hundred pesos;
"2. In any other place, sixty pesos;
"(g) Retail liquor dealers, forty-eight pesos;
"(h) Retail vino dealers, eight pesos;
"(i) Wholesale dealers in fermented liquors, sixty pesos;
"(j) Retail dealers in fermented liquors, twenty pesos;
"(k) Retail dealers in tuba, basi, and tapuy, ten pesos;
"(I) Retail leaf tobacco dealers, twenty pesos;
"(m) Tobacco dealers, eight pesos;
"(n) Wholesale peddlers of manufactured tobacco, or of distilled, manufactured, or fermented liquor, or both, eighty-pesos ;
"(o) Retail peddlers of manufactured tobacco, or of distilled, manufactured, or fermented liquor, or both, sixteen pesos;
"(p) Peddlers of merchandise traveling from place to place, except peddlers of foodstuffs and those whose stock in trade amounts to less than fifty pesos in value, eight pesos, to be refunded if thereafter they shall pay the merchants' tax for the quarter in a sum in excess of eight pesos;
"(q) Proprietors of cockpits, two hundred pesos; and for each cockfight (soltada), twenty-five centavos;
"(r) Proprietors of theaters, cinematographs, and concert halls:
"1. In city of Manila, two hundred pesos;
"2. In any other place, one hundred pesos; or in this case, by the month, ten pesos;
"(s) Proprietors of circuses giving exhibitions in one or more places or provinces, two hundred pesos;
"(t) Proprietors of billiard rooms, for each table, ten pesos;
"(u) Owners of race tracks, for each day on which races are run on any track, three hundred pesos;
"(v) Pawnbrokers, four hundred pesos;
"(w) Stockbrokers, eighty pesos;
"(x) Money lenders, two hundred pesos;
"(y) Real estate brokers, eighty pesos;
"(z) Merchandise brokers, eighty pesos."
Section 8. Article four, chapter two, of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended by adding after section forty-six thereof a new section, to be known as section forty-six (ft) and to read as follows:
"Section 46a. Percentage tax on merchandise brokers.-Merchandise brokers shall pay a percentage tax equivalent to four per cent of the gross compensation received by them in excess of five hundred pesos per quarter.
"Although every merchandise broker is subject to the fixed privilege tax, payable in advance, above established, yet, if at the end of the quarter it is found that the gross amount of his compensation has reached five hundred pesos or more, he will be allowed a credit equivalent to one quarter's fixed tax on the percentage tax due from him. In any case the amount of his compensation must be reported quarterly within the time established for the other quarterly reports of sales and receipts."
Section 9. Section fifty-three of Act Numbered twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 53.(awÞhi( Amount of privilege tax on occupation.-Privilege taxes on occupation shall be collected as follows, the amounts designated in each case being for one entire year:
"(a) Customs and immigration brokers, eighty pesos;
"(b) Lawyers, medical practitioners, land surveyors, architects, public accountants, and civil, electrical, mechanical, or mining engineers, fifty pesos;
"(c) Dental surgeons, opticians, photographers, lithographers, engravers, and professional appraisers or connoisseurs of tobacco and other domestic or foreign products, forty pesos;
"(d) Procuradores judiciales, agentes do negocios, insurance agents and subagents, and veterinarians, forty pesos;
"(e) Midwives and cirujanos ministrantes in medicine or dentistry, ten pesos;
"(f) Pharmacists, twenty pesos;
"(g) Farriers, chiropodists, manicurists, tattooers, and masseurs, twenty pesos;
" 'Medical practitioner' includes persons engaged in the ti< practice of medicine in other capacity than that of cirujano ministrante or midwife solely, but excluding physicians or surgeons temporarily called in consultation from another country.
" 'Agente de negocios' includes all persons who act as ci agents of others in the transaction of business with any -public officer, and all those who conduct collecting, advertising, employment, or private detective agencies. Before engaging in business as agente de negocios, it shall be necessary to furnish bond to the city treasurer or provincial treasurer in a penal sum not to exceed one thousand pesos, for the benefit of those interested in the operations of such agent. This bond shall cover all obligations or civil liability contracted by the agente de negocios by reason of his transactions with the public or with the Government."
Section 10. Chapter two, article four, of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine, is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof a new section, to be known as section fifty-four (a), and to read as follows:
"Section 54a. If a fixed tax due under this article is not paid within twenty days after the same becomes due, the qi amount of the tax shall be increased by twenty-five per cent, the increase to be a part of the tax."
Section 11. Subsection (a) of section fifty-eight of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"(a) If produced from sap of the nipa, coconut, or buri palm, or from the juice, sirup, or sugar of the cane, per " proof liter, thirty centavos."
Section 12. Section sixty-three of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 63. Specific tax on wines.-On wines and imitation -wines there shall be collected, per liter of volume capacity regardless of proof, the following taxes:
"(a) Sparkling wines, one peso and twenty-five centavos;
"(b) Still wines containing fourteen per centum of alcohol or less, ten centavos;
"(c) Still wines containing more than fourteen per centum of alcohol, twenty centavos;
"Imitation wines containing more than twenty-five per centum of alcohol shall be taxed as distilled spirits."
Section 13. Section sixty-four of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 64. Specific tax on fermented liquors.-On beer, lager beer, ale, porter, and other fermented liquors (except tuba, basi, tapuy, and similar domestic fermented liquors) there shall be collected, on each liter of volume capacity, five centavos."
Section 14. Section sixty-seven of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 67. Specific tax on products of tobacco.-On manufactured products of tobacco, except cigars, cigarettes, and tobacco specially prepared for chewing so as to be unsuitable for consumption in any other manner, but including all other tobacco twisted by hand or reduced into a condition to be consumed in any manner other than by the ordinary mode of drying and curing; and on all tobacco prepared or partially prepared for sale or consumption, even if prepared without the use of any machine or instrument and without being pressed or sweetened; and on all fine-cut shorts and refuse, scraps, clippings, cuttings, and sweepings of tobacco, there shall be collected, on each kilogram, sixty centavos.
"On tobacco specially prepared for chewing so as to be unsuitable for use in any other manner, on each kilogram, forty-eight centavos."
Section 15. Section sixty-nine of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 69. Specific tax on cigars and cigarettes.-On cigars and cigarettes (except handmade cigars and cigarettes prepared by the consumer for his own consumption and so used) there shall be collected the following taxes: "
"(a) Cigars:
"(1) When the manufacturer's usual wholesale value, less the amount of the tax, is twenty pesos per thousand, or less, on each thousand, two pesos; "(2) When the manufacturer's usual wholesale value, less the amount of the tax, is more than twenty pesos, but not more than fifty pesos per thousand, on each thousand, four pesos;
"(3) When the manufacturer's usual wholesale value, less the amount of the tax, exceeds fifty pesos per thousand, on each thousand, six pesos.
"(b) Cigarettes:
"(1) Weighing not more than two kilograms per thousand, on each thousand, one peso and twenty centavos;
"(2) Weighing more than two kilograms per thousand, on each thousand, two pesos."
Section 16. Section seventy-one of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended to read as follows:
"Section 71. Specific tax on manufactured oils.-On refined and manufactured mineral oils there shall be collected the following taxes:
"(1) Naphtha, gasoline, and all lighter products of distillation, per liter, three centavos;
"(2) Kerosene or petroleum, per liter of volume capacity, one and one-half centavos;
"(3) Lubricating oils, per liter of volume capacity, three centavos.
"All of the foregoing articles in the hands of dealers at the time this law takes effect on which the specific tax at the former rates has not been paid are subject to the rates herein imposed upon their removal or sale for domestic consumption."
Section 17. Article five of chapter two of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof three new sections, to be known, respectively, as sections seventy-two (a), seventy-two (b), and seventy-two (c), and to read as follows:
"Section 72a. Specific tax on cinematographic films.-There shall be collected on all cinematographic films imported or manufactured in the Philippine Islands a tax of three cen-tavos per linear meter.
"Section 72b. Tax on playing cards:
"(1) On each pack of cards containing not more than fifty-eight cards, there shall be collected a tax of twenty centavos;
"(2) On each pack containing more than fifty-eight cards, there shall be collected the tax established in the last preceding paragraph and a proportionate additional tax on the number in excess of fifty-eight.
"Section 72c. Tax on coal.-On all coal and coke there shall" be collected, per metric ton, fifty centavos."
The taxes hereinabove established upon cinematographic films and playing cards shall be imposed in the same form and paid at the same time and in the same manner as other specific taxes; but at the time this Act takes effect, the tax therein established shall apply to all playing cards in the possession of manufacturers, dealers in, or importers thereof, and to all cinematographic films at present in the Philippine Islands, with the exception of those which shall not again be exhibited in said Islands. Within one week from and after the date on which this Act takes effect, every manufacturer or importer of and dealer in playing cards and every owner of cinematographic films shall file with the Collector of Internal Revenue a sworn statement setting t forth the number of cards and films in his possession at the date on which this Act takes effect, together with such other data as may be required in the premises, and shall pay the tax thereon within one month from the date on which this Act becomes effective, or, in the case of manufacturers, when said articles leave the place in which they are manufactured. "Owner of a film" shall include the owner's agents in the Philippine Islands. Any violation of this section shall be punishable under section one hundred and eighty-five of Act Numbered Twenty-three hundred and thirty-nine.
Section 18. Chapter two of Act Numbered Twenty-three hun-di'ed and thirty-nine is hereby amended by adding at the end thereof the following article:
"Article X.-Ad valorem tax on output of mines.
"Section 100a. Rate and basis of tax on mines.-There shall be levied.and collected on the gross output of each mine an ad valorem tax equal to one and one-half per -cent of the actual market value of such output. This tax shall not be imposed with respect to valid perfected mining concessions granted prior to April eleventh, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, until the year nineteen hundred and eighteen.
"Section 100b. Time and manner of collection.-All ad valorem taxes on the value of the output of mines shall be assessed and paid before the removal of any such output from the locality where it is mined. But the output of mines may be removed from such locality without the payment of the tax herein imposed, if the owner or concessionaire of the mine shall first file a bond with the Bureau of Internal Revenue in the form and amount and with such sureties as the Collector of Internal Revenue may require, conditioned upon the future payment of said tax at such is of tax. time and place as the Collector may direct. For the purpose of establishing a uniform basis for the assessment of this tax the Collector of Internal Revenue shall, upon the taking effect of this article, and from time to time thereafter, make an assessment of the actual market value of the various products of the mines in the Philippine Islands subject to the tax herein imposed. Such assessment shall be made from the most reliable data available and shall be published in the Official Gazette for the information of the taxpayers."
Section 19. This Act shall be in effect from the first of January, nineteen hundred and sixteen, to the thirty-first of December, nineteen hundred and seventeen.
Enacted, December 21, 1915.
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