Financial literacy…also in government

It’s adding insult to injury for public school teachers to have been exacted with much higher tax rates even before their demand of salary increase could be approved. This has gained ground all the more when the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) compared the net revenue collected from the poor teachers vis-à-vis those declared for taxation purposes by self-employed professionals who have become a bunch of tax evaders in this country. The Bureau in its latest count has raked for the record more than 50% taxpayers who come from the ranks of doctors, lawyers, and accountants who have underdeclared their tax returns to evade their tax obligations. BIR may have used for reference a teacher’s honest and faithful compliance to pay tax dues. How ridiculous is it for a doctor to pay as his annual dues the amount of only P 10.00? This doctor-fellow may have laughed off his way to the bank after a consultation fee paid by a teacher who suffered a heart attack due to this tax evasion reality.

With the basic facts presented by BIR, it can be claimed however that the law profession is still the highest paid profession. Note, a lawyer paid an annual tax due of P200.00 a little higher than that paid by an accountant which was pegged at P150.00. Such could be a disgrace in the profession. A teacher who earns more than P21 Thousand a month was able to remit almost P36 Thousand of all the tax dues for the previous year, while according to BIR, self-employed professionals were able to remit only around P35 Thousand. How about other government employees who cling to the rule helplessly for the simple reason that mandatory tax deductions await in evey payday? Discussions are ripe that those whose salaries are fixed by law should enjoy social justice more than anybody else for paying an honest tax. They were left here with no choice, no ifs and buts, no over the counter, but let withholding of tax due be the rule. We can safely say then, government owes to such extent due to this forced honesty by state workers whose withholding tax were culled out basically from the present salary rate of employees.

Taking a serious look at the plight of government employees, it would take a dose of idealism to consider educating them about FINANCIAL LITERACY. What I believe as next to a sound moral force for the rank-and-file is giving appropriate “friendly instructions” in seeking priorities in budgeting. It is common knowledge that lending companies knock at each office to lure employees for some bright financial schemes whether in times of need or not. At the very least however, money paid to a worker loses its character of a public fund when it is already in the government employee’s hands. However, when one secured a loan without putting up a collateral, it is the job itself which poses as a guarantee. It is akin to withdraw the money in advance only that there is a financing body other than the government which responds to the need. Again, what is there to expect in a meager takehome pay? In this financial literacy crash course, state workers will be empowered because they will probably be re-directed to another budgeting option that is within the takehome pay bracket, to constantly flash before their eyes…until they will be able to sleep without something to bother them, like debts.

As it is said: “One cannot squeeze blood out of stone”. One cannot give further what cannot be found in his or her possession, as a rule. In this tax scheme by the government, it would take a hell of a chaos when state workers pay the tax over the counter. Let literacy be a tool to help state employees experience freedom. This may be wild, if not revolutionary, but somehow, it could help the entire bureaucracy when the people under its employ are morally (not necessarily financially) and spiritually sound to live within the realistic budget within the family and not to long for more, but instead, to lead modest lives.