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In one of her general education classes, Kat (not her real name), a senior high school student, vividly recalled her teacher telling the class that accountants, engineers, and other professionals will eventually go extinct. Robots will soon replace these professionals, and that technology will phase out the need for such people. Kat is now wondering if she still needs to go to college and pursue a profession.

Summer is here! As the school break starts, everyone is excited to plan where to spend their holidays. But before gearing up for the vacation, corporate taxpayers adopting calendar taxable year and individual taxpayers can’t think of enjoying summer yet until the April 15 annual income tax return (ITR) deadline passes.

THE NEW autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao, Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), would have been inaugurated by the time this commentary gets into print. I am happy about this development, and I hope it will usher in a much more successful autonomous Muslim region than its predecessor had been. The entire country needs and, I am sure, wants it to be so.

Perhaps part of being human is to search for the meaning of life. The sorrow brought about by an elusive resolution to one of life’s perennial mysteries—why are we here? —has long plagued the existence of mankind, inseparable as it is to our mortality and apprehension towards it. Finding ourselves helpless to the unrelenting flow of time and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, we grope in the dark in attempts to justify our existence with a purpose.

It is not every day that delinquents are given the chance to avail of tax amnesty. A review of our past tax amnesties, both legislated and administrative, show that delinquents are very seldom given breaks. Of the 10 tax amnesties passed during the Marcos administration, only one covered delinquents (i.e., Presidential Decree No. 68, issued in 1972). Of the three tax amnesties passed during the Corazon Aquino administration, none covered delinquents. However, there was Executive Order No. 44, which authorized the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) to accept compromise payments on delinquent accounts.

In this age of social media, where we have access to platforms that allow us to share our own content, we are becoming more aware of what has been happening to other people, regardless of where they may be. Though there are inherent dangers to this new level of connectedness, it also allows more and more conversations to happen, albeit in the digital space. It can cause envy, yes, but it can also spark hope. As we share our lives and engage in conversations that transcend distance, it now becomes more apparent to us that we are not alone in our daily struggles; that our sufferings are not unique to us; that there are others out there who may have something worse than whatever it is we are going through.

In accordance with Republic Act No. 11199, or the Social Security Act of 2018, the Social Security System (SSS) issued SSS Circular No. 2019-05 on March 15, 2019, prescribing the new contribution table that is effective in April 2019, as illustrated below.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. Preparing for an upcoming customs audit is one way to minimize, if not to avoid, the risk of having deficiency assessments. The recent issuance of the Customs Administrative Order (CAO) No. 1-2019 marks the beginning of the audit season for importers.