Law amended and how it changes rules
- Section 1 amends Section 1443 of the Administrative Code.
- Act No. 3904 specifically adjusts the cedula tax payment timeline for Cagayan and Isabela by extending the penalty-free period.
- Section 1 rewrites Section 1443 to include a special Provided rule for the Provinces of Cagayan and Isabela.
Cedula tax liability timing rules
- Cedula tax liability under Section 1443 accrues on the first of January of each year for persons then resident in the Islands and liable to the tax.
- Under Section 1443, a person becomes delinquent if the cedula tax is not paid before the first of May.
- Section 1443 provides special timing for persons who come to reside or become liable during the year:
- Persons who come to reside prior to the first of July, and persons who reach eighteen years or otherwise lose the benefit of exemption prior to that date, have liability attach on the day of arrival or the day exemption ceases.
- If such persons become liable on or before the tenth of April, they become delinquent upon failure to pay before the first of May.
- If such persons become liable after the tenth of April, they have twenty days to pay the tax without becoming delinquent.
- Section 1443 imposes a rule based on prison service and release:
- Persons who on the first of January are serving sentence of one year or less in prison and are not released until after the tenth of April must pay within twenty days after their release to avoid delinquency.
- Section 1443 exempts certain persons from paying for a year:
- Persons who come to reside in the Islands or arrive at the age of eighteen years on or after the first of July, or who cease to belong to an exempt class on or after the same date, are not subject to the tax for such year.
Penalty-free deadline for Cagayan and Isabela
- Section 1 amends Section 1443 with a Provided rule that, in the Provinces of Cagayan and Isabela, the cedula tax is payable without penalty until the thirty-first of August of each year.
- The thirty-first of August deadline operates as the penalty-free payment cutoff for those provinces, even though the general delinquency marker remains before the first of May under the main rule in Section 1443.
Transitory coverage rules embedded in Section 1443
- Section 1443 requires different payment timelines depending on when a person:
- becomes liable by arrival, or
- becomes liable by reaching eighteen years, or
- loses an exemption class.
- Section 1443 establishes that persons who become liable after the tenth of April receive a grace period of twenty days to pay without delinquency.
- Section 1443 establishes that persons whose liability status changes on or after the first of July are not subject to the tax for that year.