On the “campaign-spending tax”, so-called: The legal issue in the imposition of the so-called “campaign-spending tax” is whether or not it is a new tax: if it were a new tax, it should emanate from Congress as required by the Constitution; the BIR has no power to create taxes, only Congress does, as tax laws; if the BIR could categorize it under any of the taxes already imposable under the Tax Code, then it could enforce it.
(as I understand it, the BIR regulation required a 5% withholding on the “campaign funds” of each candidate; and that the tax is on the contribution (5%) and not on the “spending”. Since they never collected it before, is it then understood that the collection of “campaign-spending taxes” in the previous three or so elections in this country had been waived? In any case, all that a candidate has to do is, as is always practised, to under-declare; no government agency has ever successfully put together or even lifted a finger to put together a case of “under-declaration” against any candidate. Still, even with the under-declaration, if not challenged, the BIR is set to collect about a hundred million for every billion or two billion in campaign contribution/ spending.)
