A pun for unreasonable taxes: “The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin (Mark Twain)”. My encounter with our country's taxation reached its sanity-challenging level when I was supposed to get my package envelope yesterday sent from a friend in California, USA. Sent via UPS and coursed here through local courier 2Go, the package only contains two flash drives and five homemade music compact discs which cost a total of $20. When I tried to claim it, I was asked to pay P1,714 or almost $40. There is no cure for Ebola virus in those items that would lead the taxing agency to think I must be dealing with million-dollar trade secrets. The flash drives only consist of book articles that I am asked to edit for my friend. With such tax, I seem to deprive myself the freedom to receive information from abroad. Does the revenue-seeking agency rob us? How can our people become productive if our system strangles us like helpless cows for the corned-beef factory?

In another case, meet the plight of retiring or resigning employees at private organizations. If they have arrangements for claiming their contribution upon retirement or resignation (a company arrangement), they would be challenged by double taxation. Suppose my retirement contribution is P360,000 for my sixteen years of service, I will be taxed with approximately 20 percent together with the income accrued by the amount. I call this double-taxation because the government already cut 20 percent from my gross income before it cuts another tax upon claiming my retirement money. I cannot understand why the government considers this a good revenue-generating scheme. The scheme will not enlighten if it oppresses the already struggling populace. Double taxation, as our Supreme Court defines, is taxing the same property twice when it should be taxed only once; or, taxing the same person twice by the same jurisdiction for the same thing. In general, double taxation is not forbidden in our constitution since we have not yet adopted an injunction against it unlike in the US.

According to Atty. Nonato, “double taxation becomes obnoxious only where the taxpayer is taxed twice for the benefit of the same governmental entity or by the same jurisdiction for the same purpose, but not in a case where one tax is imposed by the State and the other by the city or municipality”. The government should change our tax structures to make it equitable and functional (not otherwise) as it is intended in principle. This has long been a pressing issue. Double or triple taxation adds misery to the people; the arbitrary tax levied on the CD's and flash drives I mentioned is appalling. Likewise, there is unfairness when income remains untaxed. But we cannot avoid Albert Einstein's assertion: “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the…tax.” (LucellLarawan, PhD in Social Sciences and Fine Arts (honoris causa), is a researcher, mentor and visual artist. He has stayed in Bohol in search for the needed transitions in his career after 16 years of giving accolades in a university outside the province. His email is lucelllarawan@gmail.com .)