TAX ORDINANCE NO. 22 SERIES OF 2007
AN ORDINANCE REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 81 SERIES OF 2002
AND PROVIDING FOR THE “OLONGAPO CITY 2007 REVENUE CODE”
Be it ordained by the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Olongapo City, that.
CHAPTER I - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article A. Short Title and Scope
Section 1A.01 Title - This Ordinance shall be known as the
“Olongapo City 2007 Revenue Code”
Section 1A.02
Scope – This Code shall govern the levy, assessment and collection of taxes, fees, charges and other legal impositions within jurisdiction of Olongapo City.
Article B. Definition of Terms and Rules of Construction
Section 1B.01 Definitions - When used in this Code, the term:
Actual Use – refers to the purpose for which the person in possession thereof principally or predominantly utilizes the real property.
Acquisition Cost – refers to the actual cost of the taxable machinery to its present owner, plus the cost of transportation, handling, including Value Added Tax (VAT) and installation at the present site.
Advertising Agency includes all persons who are engaged in the business of advertising for others by means of billboards, posters, placards, notices, signs, directories, pamphlets, leaflets, handbills, electric or neon lights, airplanes, balloons or media, whether in pictorial or reading form.
Agricultural - relating to or used in or promoting agriculture or farming
Agricultural Product – includes the yield of the soil, such as corn, rice, wheat, rye, hay, coconuts, sugarcane, tobacco, root crops, vegetables, fruits, flowers and their by-products, all kinds of fish, poultry and livestock and animal products, whether in their original form or not.
The phrase, “whether in their original form or not” refers to the transformation of said products by the farmer, fisherman, producer or owner through the application of processes to preserve or otherwise prepare said products for the market such as freezing, drying, salting, smoking, or stripping for purposes of preserving or otherwise preparing said products for the market;
Agricultural products as defined include those that have undergone not only simple but even sophisticated processes employing advanced technological means in packaging like dressed chicken or ground coffee in plastic bags or Styrofoam or other packaging materials intended to process and prepare the products for the market.
The term by-product shall mean those materials which in the cultivation or processing or an artistic remain over, and which are still of value and marketable like copra cake or molasses from sugarcane.
Amusement - is a pleasurable diversion and entertainment. It is synonymous to recreation, relaxation, avocation, pastime or fun.
Amusement Places - include theaters, cinemas, concert halls, circuses and other places of amusement where one seek admission for a fee to entertain oneself by seeing or viewing the show or performances or where one entertains himself/herself by direct participation.
Apartelle - any building or edifice containing several independent and furnished or semi-furnished apartments, regularly leased to tourists and travelers for dwelling on a more or less long term basis and offering basic services to its tenants, similar to hotels.
Appraisal – is the act or process of determining the value of a property as of a specific date for a specific purpose.
Article or Thing – comprehends merchandises, wares or goods.
Assessed Value – the fair market value of the real property multiplied by the assessment level. It is synonymous to taxable value.
Assessment – the act or process of determining the value of a real property, or portion thereof subject to tax, including the discovery, listing, classification, and appraisal of property.
Assessment Level – the percentage applied to the market value of a real property to determine its assessed or taxable value.
Banks and Other Financial Institutions - includes banks, non-bank financial intermediaries, lending investors, finance and investment companies, investment houses, pawnshops, money shops, insurance companies, stock markets, stock brokers and dealers in securities and foreign exchange including pre-need companies, and foreign exchange as defined under applicable law, or rules and regulations.
Bar - include places where intoxicating and fermented liquor or malt are sold, even without foods, where services of waitresses are employed; and where customers may dance to music not rendered by a regular dance orchestra or musicians hired for the purpose; otherwise the place shall be classified as a dance hall or night or day club. A cocktail lounge or beer garden is considered a bar even if there are no hostesses or waitresses to entertain customers.
Boarding House - includes any house where boarders are admitted for a fee by the week or month and where meals are served to boarders only. A pension inn (or pension house) shall be considered a boarding house unless, by the nature of its services and facilities, it falls into another classification.
Brewer includes all persons who manufacture fermented liquors of any description for sale or delivery to others, but does not include manufacturers of tuba, basi, tapuey, or similar domestic fermented liquors, whose daily production does not exceed two hundred (200) gauge liters.
Building – all kinds of structure temporarily or permanently attached to a piece of land excluding those which are merely superimposed on the soil.
Business – trade or commercial activity regularly engaged in as a means of livelihood or with a view to profit.
Business Agent - (Agente de negocio) includes all persons who act as agents of others in the transaction of business with any public official, as well as those who conduct collecting, advertising, employment, or private detective agencies.
Business Center a place for business transactions; a place of transacting business as well as collecting, advertising, purchasing a product or service.
Cabaret/Dance Hall includes any place or establishment where dancing is permitted to the public in consideration of any admission, entrance, or any other fee paid on, before, or after dancing, and where professional hostesses or dancers are employed.
Capital Investment – is the capital which a person employs in any undertaking or which he contributes to the capital of a partnership, corporation, or any other judicial entity or association in a particular taxing jurisdiction.
Carinderia refers to any public eating place where cooked foods are served at a price.
Charges – refer to pecuniary liability, as rents or fees against person or property.
Civil Remedies – are remedies in the collection of delinquent taxes either by distraint of personal property, levy on real property, cancellation of business permits or by judicial actions.
Cockpit includes any place, compound, building, or portion thereof, where cockfights are held, whether or not money bets are made on the results of such cockfights.
Collecting Agency includes any person, other than a practicing Attorney-at-Law, engaging in the business of collecting or suing debt or liabilities placed in his hands, for said collection or suit, by subscribers or customers applying and paying therefore.
Commercial Broker includes all persons other than importers, manufacturers, producers or bonafide employees, who for compensation or profit, sell or bring about sales or purchases or merchandise for other persons; bring proposed buyers and sellers together; or negotiate freights for other business for owners of vessel or other means of transportation for shippers, consignees of good/freight carried by vessels or other means of transportation. The term includes commission merchants.
Computer Sales and Rental Shops – establishments engaged in selling or renting of computers and/or peripherals including its accessories.
Computer Services – establishments engaged in computer tutorial, printing service, programming, system development, internet access, IT consultancy, networking, web development, computer games, video arcades, play stations, trouble shooting, upgrade and repair of computers beyond warranty.
Contractor – includes person, natural or juridical, not subject to professional tax whose activity consists essentially of the sale of all kinds of services for a fee regardless of whether or not the performance of the service calls for the exercise or use of the physical or mental faculties of such contractor or his employees.
As used in this Article, the term contractor shall include general engineering, general building and specialty contractors are defined under applicable laws; filing, demolition and salvage works contractors; proprietors or operators of mine drilling apparatus; proprietors or operators of computer services/rental; proprietors or operators of dockyards; persons engaged in the installation of water system, and gas or electric light, heat, or power; proprietors or operators of smelting plants; engraving, planting, and plastic lamination establishments; proprietors or operators of establishments for repairing, repainting upholstering, washing or greasing of vehicles, heavy equipment, vulcanizing, recapping and battery charging, proprietors or operators of furniture shops and establishments for planting or surfacing and precutting of lumber, sawmills under contract to saw or cut logs belonging to others; proprietors or operators of dry-cleaning or dyeing establishments, steam laundries, and laundries using washing machines; proprietors or owners of shops for the repair of any kind of mechanical and electrical devices, instruments, apparatus, or furniture and shoe repairing by machine or any mechanical contrivance; proprietors or operators of establishments or lots for parking purposes; proprietors or operator of tailor shops, dress shops, milliners and hatters, beauty parlors, barbershops, massage clinics, sauna, Turkish and Swedish baths, slenderizing and building saloons and similar establishments; photographic studios; funeral parlors; proprietors or operators of arrester and stevedoring, warehousing, or forwarding establishments; master plumbers, smiths, and house or sign painters; printers, bookbinders, lithographers, publishers except those engaged in the publication or printing of any newspaper, magazine, review or bulletin which appears at regular intervals with fix prices for subscription and sale and which is not devoted principally to the publication of the advertisements; business agents, private detective or watchman agencies, commercial and immigration brokers, and cinematographic film owners, lessors and distributors.
The term “resident foreign” when applied to a corporation means a foreign corporation not otherwise organized under the laws of the Philippines but engaged in trade or business within the Philippines.
Cooperative – is a duly registered association of persons, with common bond of interest, who have voluntarily joined together to achieve a lawful, common, social or economic end, making equitable contributions to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risks and benefits of the undertaking in accordance with universally accepted cooperative principles.
Corporation – includes partnerships, no matter how created or organized, joint-stock companies, joint accounts (cuentas en participacion), associations or insurance companies but does not include general professional partnerships and a joint venture or consortium formed for the purpose of undertaking construction projects or engaging in petroleum, coal, geothermal, and other energy operations pursuant to an operating or consortium agreement under a service contract with the government. General professional partnerships are partnerships formed by persons for the sole purpose of exercising their common profession, no part of the income of which is derived from engaging in any trade or business.
Dealer in Securities include all persons who for their own account are engaged in the sale of stocks, bonds, exchange, bullion, coined money, bank notes, promissory notes, and other securities. It shall also include pre-need companies or those engaged in the sale of educational plans, health care plans, memorial plans, etc.
E-Commerce is generally used to cover the “distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods, and services by electronic means.”
Economic Life – the estimated period over which is anticipated that a machinery or equipment may be profitably utilized.
Essential Commodities - anything absolutely necessary and indispensable "necessities of life" such as food and shelter.
Exporter - means any person who is engaged in the business of exporting articles or goods of any kind from the Philippines for the sale or consumption abroad.
Fair Market Value – the price at which a property may be sold by a seller who is not compelled to sell and may be bought by a buyer who is not compelled to buy.
Fee – means a charge fixed by law or ordinance for the regulation or inspection of a business or activity or the service of a public office.
Franchise – a right or privilege, affected with public interest that is conferred upon private persons or corporations, under such terms and conditions as the government and its political subdivisions may impose in the interest of public welfare, security and safety.
General Building Contractor - is a person whose principal contracting business is in connection with any structure being built, or to be built, for the support, shelter and enclosure of persons, animal, chattels, or movable property of any kind, requiring in its construction the use of more than two unrelated building trades or crafts, or to do or superintend the whole or any part thereof. Such structure includes sewers and sewerage disposal plants and systems, parks, playgrounds, and other recreational works, refineries, chemical plants and similar industrial plants requiring specialized engineering knowledge and skill, powerhouses, power plants and other utility plants and installation, mines and metallurgical plants, cement and concrete works in connection with the above-mentioned fixed works.
A person who merely furnishes materials or supplies without fabricating them into or consuming them in the performance of the work of the general building contractor does not necessarily fall within this definition.
General Engineering Contractor - is a person or corporation whose principal contracting business is in connection with fixed works requiring specialized engineering, knowledge and skill, including the following divisions or subjects: irrigation, drainage, water power, water supply, flood control, inland waterways, harbors, docks and wharves, shipyards and ports, dams, hydroelectric projects, levees, river control and reclamation works, railroads, highways, streets and roads, tunnels, airports and airways, waste reduction plants, bridges, overpasses, underpasses and other similar works, pipelines and other systems for the transmission of petroleum and other liquid or gaseous substances, land-leveling and earth-moving projects, excavating, graving, trenching, paving, and surfacing works.
Gross Sales or Receipts – include the total amount of money or its equivalent representing the contract price, compensation or service fee, including the amount charged or materials supplied with the services and deposits or advance payments actually or constructively received for the services performed or to be performed for another person excluding discounts if determinable at the time of sales, sales return, excise tax, and value-added tax (VAT).
Holding Company - a controlling company that has one or more subsidiaries and confines its activities primarily to their management.
Hotel - includes any house or building or portion thereof in which any person or persons may be regularly harbored or received as transients or guests.
Idle Lands – taxable lands which are more than one thousand (1,000) square meters in area, one half (1/2) or more of which remains idle, unutilized, or unimproved by the owners of the property or persons having legal interest therein.
Importer - means any person who brings articles, goods, wares or merchandise of any kind or class into the Philippines from abroad for unloading therein, or which after such entry are consumed herein or incorporated into the general mass of property in the Philippines. In case of tax free articles, brought or imported in the Philippines by persons, entities or agencies exempt from tax which are subsequently sold, transferred, or exchanged in the Philippines to non-exempt private person or entities, the purchaser or recipient shall be considered the importer thereof.
Improvement – a valuable addition made to a real property or an amelioration in its conditions, amounting to more than a mere repair or replacement of parts involving capital expenditures and labor which is intended to enhance its value, beauty or utility or to adapt it for a new or further purposes.
Levy – means an imposition or collection of an assessment, tax, tribute, or fine.
License or Permit – is a right or permission granted in accordance with law by a competent authority to engage in some business, occupation or to engage in some transactions.
Lien – a charge upon real or personal property for the satisfaction of some debt or duty ordinarily by operation of law.
Lodging House - includes any house or building, or portion thereof, in which any person or persons may be regularly harbored or received as transients for compensation. Taverns or inns shall be considered as lodging houses.
Machinery – embraces machines, equipments, mechanical, contrivances, instruments, appliances or apparatus, which may or may not be attached, permanently or temporarily, to the real property. It includes the physical facilities for production, the installations and appurtenant service facilities, those which are mobile, self-powered or self-propelled, and those not permanently attached to the real property which are actually, directly, and exclusively used to meet the needs of the particular industry, business or activity and which by their very nature and purpose are designed for, or necessary to its manufacturing, mining, logging, commercial, industrial or agricultural purposes. It includes machinery in residential property.
Manufacturer includes every person who, for the purpose of sale or distribution to others and not for his own use or consumption, by physical or chemical process:
(1) alters the exterior texture, or inner substance of any raw material or manufactured or partially manufactured product in such manner as to prepare it for a special use or uses to which it could not have been put in its original condition;
(2) alters the quality of any such raw material or manufactured or partially manufactured product so as to reduce it to marketable shape or prepare it for any use of industry; or
(3) combines any raw materials or manufactured or partially manufactured product with other materials or products of the same or different kind in such manner that the finished product of such process or manufacture can be put to a special use or uses to which such materials, or manufactured or partially manufactured product in its original condition could not have been put.
Marginal Farmer of Fisherman – refers to an individual engaged in subsistence farming or fishing which shall be limited to the sale, barter or exchange of agricultural or marine products produced by himself and his immediate family.
Motor Vehicle – any vehicle propelled by any power other than muscular power using public roads, but excluding road rollers, trolley cars, street sweepers, sprinklers, lawn mowers, bulldozers, graders, forklifts, amphibian trucks and cranes if not used in public roads, vehicles which run on rails or tracks and tractors, trailers and traction engines of all kinds used exclusively for agricultural purposes.
Motorist Hotel (Motel) – includes any house or building or portion thereof in which persons maybe regularly harbored or received as transients or guests which is provided with a common enclosed or individually enclosed garage where such transients or guests may park their vehicles.
Night or Day Club - includes any place frequented at nighttime or daytime, as the case may be, where patrons are served food or drinks and are allowed to dance with their partners or with professional hostesses furnished by the management.
Occupation - means one’s regular business or employment or an activity, which principally takes up one’s time, thought and energies. It includes any calling, business, trade, profession, or vocation, which does not require the passing of an appropriate government examination.
Peddler – any person who, either for himself or on commission, travels from place to place and sells his goods or offers to sell and deliver the same. Whether a peddler is a wholesale peddler or a retail peddler of a particular commodity shall be determined from the definition of wholesale or retail as provided in this Section.
Pension House – a private or family-operated tourist boarding house, tourist guest house or tourist lodging house employing non- professional domestic helpers regularly catering to tourists and travelers, containing several independent let table rooms, providing common facilities such as toilets, bathrooms, showers, living and dining rooms and/or kitchen and where a combination of board and lodging may be provided.
Persons – means every natural or juridical being susceptible of rights and obligations or of being the subject of legal relations.
Privately-Owned Market means those market establishments including shopping centers funded and operated by private persons, natural or juridical, under government permit.
Privilege – means a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage or favor.
Profession - a calling, which requires the passing of an appropriate government examinations, such as law, medicine, public accountancy, engineering, etc.
Public Market refers to any place, building, or structure of any kind designated as such by the local board or council, except public streets, plazas, parks and the like.
Public Utility – includes electric power generating and distributing system, road, rail, air and water transport, postal, telegraph, radio or television broadcasting/cable-casting, wired/wireless communications via telephone, cell phone or two-way radios, and water companies, characterized by large investments because their optimum scale is huge. They are natural monopolies whose prices, profits and efficiency are not subject to competitive checks, and they provide essential services to industries and constituents. The operations of public utilities are granted through special laws or ordinances.
Real Estate Broker includes any person, other than a real estate salesman as hereinafter defined, who for another, and for a compensation or in the expectation or promise of receiving compensation, (1) sells, or offers for sale, buys or offers to buy, lists or solicits for prospective purchasers, or negotiate the purchase, sale or exchange of real estate or interests therein; (2) or negotiate loans on real estate; (3) or leases or offers to lease or negotiates the sale, purchase or exchange of lease, or rents or places for rent or collects rent from real estate or improvements thereon; (4) or shall be employed by or on behalf of the owner or owners of lots or other parcels of real estate at a stated salary or commission, or otherwise to sell such real estate or any part thereof in lots or parcels. This definition is not limited to licensed real estate brokers, thus, any unlicensed broker who were able to close a real estate sale is subject to taxes under this code.
Real Estate salesman means any natural person regularly employed by a real estate broker or working under commission basis or the likes to perform in behalf of such broker or any or all the functions of a real estate broker. One act of a character embraced within the above definition shall constitute the person performing or attempting to perform the function of the same as a real estate broker. The foregoing definition do not include a person who shall directly perform any acts aforesaid reference to his own property, where such acts are performed in the regular course of or as an incident to the management of such property; nor shall they apply to persons acting pursuant to a duly executed power-of-attorney from the owner authorizing final consummation by performer of a contract conveying a real estate by sale, mortgage or lease; nor shall they apply to any receiver, trustee or assignee in bankruptcy or insolvency or in any person acting pursuant to the order of any court; nor to a trustee selling under a deed of trust.
Real Estate Dealer includes any person engaged in the business of buying , selling, exchanging, leasing or renting property as principal and holding himself out as a full or part-time dealer in real estate or as owner of real property or properties rented or offered for rent for an aggregate amount of One Thousand Pesos (PhP 1,000.00) or more a year. Any person shall be considered as engaged in a business as real estate dealer by the mere fact that he is the owner or sub-lessor of property rented or offered for rent for an aggregate amount of One Thousand Pesos (PhpP1, 000.00) or more a year.
Real Estate Developer – To buy, sell, lease or otherwise acquire and own real estate, improve and develop the same, erect and construct building and other improvements thereon, to rent, sell or otherwise dispose of real estate and deal generally in all contracts pertaining to the purpose, sale, management and disposition of real estate; to erect, repair, remodel, construct, improve and develop homes, business industries and commercial buildings, hereditaments, easements and appurtenances thereto, wherein situated, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Real Property – consists of land, building, machinery and other improvements temporarily or permanently attached to the real property, which from part of the land.
Reassessment – the assigning of new assessed values to real property, as the result of a general, partial, or individual reappraisal of the property.
Rectifier comprises every person who rectifies, purifies, or refines distilled spirits or wines by any person other than by original and continuous distillation from mash, wheat, wash, sap, or syrup through continuous closed vessels and pipes until the manufacture thereof is complete. Every wholesale or retail liquor dealer who has in his possession any still or mash tub, or who keeps any other apparatus for the purpose of distilling of spirits, or in any manner refining distilled spirits, shall also be regarded as a rectifier and as being engaged in the business of rectifying.
Rental – means the value of the consideration, whether in money or otherwise given for the enjoyment or use of a thing.
Replacement or Reproduction Cost – the cost that would be incurred on the basis of current prices in acquiring an equally desirable substitute property, or the cost of reproducing a new replica of the real property on the basis of current prices with the same or closely similar materials.
Residential Property – real property principally devoted to habitation.
Residents – refer to the natural persons, who have their habitual residence in the city where they exercise their civil right and fulfill their civil obligations, and to juridical persons for which the law or any or any other provision creating or recognizing them fixes their residence in a particular locality. In the absence of such laws, juridical persons are residents of the city where they have their legal residence or principal place of business or where they conduct their principal business or occupation.
Resort – any place or places with pleasant environment and atmosphere conducive to comfort, healthful relaxation and rest, offering food, sleeping accommodations and recreational facilities to the public for a fee.
Restaurant refers to any place, which provides food to the public, accepts orders from them at a price. These terms includes caterers.
Retail means a sale where the purchaser buys the commodity for his own consumption, irrespective of the quantity of the commodity sold.
Revenue – includes taxes, fees and charges that a state or its political subdivision collects and receives into the treasury for public purposes.
Secretary’s Fee – fees collected from persons requesting certifications, copies of official records and documents on file in the various offices of the City Government.
Service – mean the duties, work or functions performed or discharged by a government officer, or by a private person contracted by the government as the case may be. ejp
Shopping Centers – are business establishments containing sections of groceries, appliances, food, amusement activities, movie houses, fitness centers, clothing apparel, home furnishings, etc. housed in one building or several buildings. It may be operated by one person or by different persons renting spaces in the complex.
Social/Sport Clubs - are clubs and the social features of which are the individual purposes of each organization and which conducts various kinds of entertainment on sporting contests and have elaborate amusement or sport facilities.
Specialty Contractor - a person whose operations pertain to the performance of construction work requiring special skills and whose principal contracting business involves the use of specialized building trades or crafts.
Tax – means an enforced contribution, usually monetary in form, levied by the law-making body on persons and properties subject to its jurisdiction for the purpose of supporting governmental needs.
Theater or Cinema house - includes any edifice, building or enclosure where motion pictures are exhibited and/or where operatic or dramatic performances, presentations or plays, or other shows are held.
Vessel includes every type of boat, craft, or other artificial contrivances used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water.
Warehouse – includes every building or portion thereof where goods, wares, merchandises, articles or other personal property are received and stored. A warehouse that accept orders and/or issue sales invoices shall be considered a branch or sales office.
Wharfage - means a fee assessed against the cargo of a vessel engaged in foreign or domestic trade based on quantity, weight or measure received and/or discharged by vessels.
Wholesale – means a sale where the purchaser buys or imports the commodities for re-sale to persons other than the end user regardless of the quantity of the transaction.
Section 1B.02. Words and Phrases Not Herein Expressly Defined. Words and phrases embodied in this Code not herein defined shall have the same definitions as found in R.A. 7160 and its Implementing Rules and Regulation as well as in other applicable laws.
Section 1B.03 Rules of Construction. General Rule - In construing the provisions of this Code, the following rules of construction shall be observed unless otherwise inconsistent with the manifest intent of the said provisions, or when applied would lead to absurd or highly improbable results.
a) Common and Technical Words – All words and phrases shall be construed and understood according to the common and approved usage of the language. But technical words and phrases and such other words which may have acquired a peculiar or appropriate meaning or that which is defined in this Code shall be construed and understood according to such technical, peculiar, appropriate meaning or as defined.
b) Gender and Number - Every word in this Code importing the masculine gender shall extend to both a male and female. Every word importing the singular number shall likewise be applicable to several persons or things and every word importing the plural number shall likewise apply to one person or thing.
c) Computation of Time – The time in which any act is to be done as provided for in this Code or in any rule or regulation issued pursuant to the provisions thereof, when expressed in days, shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last day, except if the last day falls on a Sunday or holiday in which case the same shall be excluded from the computation, and the next business day shall be considered the last day.
d) References – All references to chapters, articles, sections are to chapters, articles, and sections in this code, unless otherwise specified.
e) Conflicting Provisions of Chapters or Articles – If the provisions of different chapters or articles contravene each other, the provision of each chapters or article shall prevail as to specific matters and questions involved therein.
f) Conflicting Provisions of Sections – If the provisions of different sections in the same chapter or article conflicts with each other, the provisions of the section which is last in point or sequence shall prevail.
AN ORDINANCE REPEALING ORDINANCE NO. 81 SERIES OF 2002
AND PROVIDING FOR THE “OLONGAPO CITY 2007 REVENUE CODE”
Be it ordained by the Sangguniang Panlungsod of Olongapo City, that.
CHAPTER I - GENERAL PROVISIONS
Article A. Short Title and Scope
Section 1A.01 Title - This Ordinance shall be known as the
“Olongapo City 2007 Revenue Code”
Section 1A.02
Scope – This Code shall govern the levy, assessment and collection of taxes, fees, charges and other legal impositions within jurisdiction of Olongapo City.
Article B. Definition of Terms and Rules of Construction
Section 1B.01 Definitions - When used in this Code, the term:
Actual Use – refers to the purpose for which the person in possession thereof principally or predominantly utilizes the real property.
Acquisition Cost – refers to the actual cost of the taxable machinery to its present owner, plus the cost of transportation, handling, including Value Added Tax (VAT) and installation at the present site.
Advertising Agency includes all persons who are engaged in the business of advertising for others by means of billboards, posters, placards, notices, signs, directories, pamphlets, leaflets, handbills, electric or neon lights, airplanes, balloons or media, whether in pictorial or reading form.
Agricultural - relating to or used in or promoting agriculture or farming
Agricultural Product – includes the yield of the soil, such as corn, rice, wheat, rye, hay, coconuts, sugarcane, tobacco, root crops, vegetables, fruits, flowers and their by-products, all kinds of fish, poultry and livestock and animal products, whether in their original form or not.
The phrase, “whether in their original form or not” refers to the transformation of said products by the farmer, fisherman, producer or owner through the application of processes to preserve or otherwise prepare said products for the market such as freezing, drying, salting, smoking, or stripping for purposes of preserving or otherwise preparing said products for the market;
Agricultural products as defined include those that have undergone not only simple but even sophisticated processes employing advanced technological means in packaging like dressed chicken or ground coffee in plastic bags or Styrofoam or other packaging materials intended to process and prepare the products for the market.
The term by-product shall mean those materials which in the cultivation or processing or an artistic remain over, and which are still of value and marketable like copra cake or molasses from sugarcane.
Amusement - is a pleasurable diversion and entertainment. It is synonymous to recreation, relaxation, avocation, pastime or fun.
Amusement Places - include theaters, cinemas, concert halls, circuses and other places of amusement where one seek admission for a fee to entertain oneself by seeing or viewing the show or performances or where one entertains himself/herself by direct participation.
Apartelle - any building or edifice containing several independent and furnished or semi-furnished apartments, regularly leased to tourists and travelers for dwelling on a more or less long term basis and offering basic services to its tenants, similar to hotels.
Appraisal – is the act or process of determining the value of a property as of a specific date for a specific purpose.
Article or Thing – comprehends merchandises, wares or goods.
Assessed Value – the fair market value of the real property multiplied by the assessment level. It is synonymous to taxable value.
Assessment – the act or process of determining the value of a real property, or portion thereof subject to tax, including the discovery, listing, classification, and appraisal of property.
Assessment Level – the percentage applied to the market value of a real property to determine its assessed or taxable value.
Banks and Other Financial Institutions - includes banks, non-bank financial intermediaries, lending investors, finance and investment companies, investment houses, pawnshops, money shops, insurance companies, stock markets, stock brokers and dealers in securities and foreign exchange including pre-need companies, and foreign exchange as defined under applicable law, or rules and regulations.
Bar - include places where intoxicating and fermented liquor or malt are sold, even without foods, where services of waitresses are employed; and where customers may dance to music not rendered by a regular dance orchestra or musicians hired for the purpose; otherwise the place shall be classified as a dance hall or night or day club. A cocktail lounge or beer garden is considered a bar even if there are no hostesses or waitresses to entertain customers.
Boarding House - includes any house where boarders are admitted for a fee by the week or month and where meals are served to boarders only. A pension inn (or pension house) shall be considered a boarding house unless, by the nature of its services and facilities, it falls into another classification.
Brewer includes all persons who manufacture fermented liquors of any description for sale or delivery to others, but does not include manufacturers of tuba, basi, tapuey, or similar domestic fermented liquors, whose daily production does not exceed two hundred (200) gauge liters.
Building – all kinds of structure temporarily or permanently attached to a piece of land excluding those which are merely superimposed on the soil.
Business – trade or commercial activity regularly engaged in as a means of livelihood or with a view to profit.
Business Agent - (Agente de negocio) includes all persons who act as agents of others in the transaction of business with any public official, as well as those who conduct collecting, advertising, employment, or private detective agencies.
Business Center a place for business transactions; a place of transacting business as well as collecting, advertising, purchasing a product or service.
Cabaret/Dance Hall includes any place or establishment where dancing is permitted to the public in consideration of any admission, entrance, or any other fee paid on, before, or after dancing, and where professional hostesses or dancers are employed.
Capital Investment – is the capital which a person employs in any undertaking or which he contributes to the capital of a partnership, corporation, or any other judicial entity or association in a particular taxing jurisdiction.
Carinderia refers to any public eating place where cooked foods are served at a price.
Charges – refer to pecuniary liability, as rents or fees against person or property.
Civil Remedies – are remedies in the collection of delinquent taxes either by distraint of personal property, levy on real property, cancellation of business permits or by judicial actions.
Cockpit includes any place, compound, building, or portion thereof, where cockfights are held, whether or not money bets are made on the results of such cockfights.
Collecting Agency includes any person, other than a practicing Attorney-at-Law, engaging in the business of collecting or suing debt or liabilities placed in his hands, for said collection or suit, by subscribers or customers applying and paying therefore.
Commercial Broker includes all persons other than importers, manufacturers, producers or bonafide employees, who for compensation or profit, sell or bring about sales or purchases or merchandise for other persons; bring proposed buyers and sellers together; or negotiate freights for other business for owners of vessel or other means of transportation for shippers, consignees of good/freight carried by vessels or other means of transportation. The term includes commission merchants.
Computer Sales and Rental Shops – establishments engaged in selling or renting of computers and/or peripherals including its accessories.
Computer Services – establishments engaged in computer tutorial, printing service, programming, system development, internet access, IT consultancy, networking, web development, computer games, video arcades, play stations, trouble shooting, upgrade and repair of computers beyond warranty.
Contractor – includes person, natural or juridical, not subject to professional tax whose activity consists essentially of the sale of all kinds of services for a fee regardless of whether or not the performance of the service calls for the exercise or use of the physical or mental faculties of such contractor or his employees.
As used in this Article, the term contractor shall include general engineering, general building and specialty contractors are defined under applicable laws; filing, demolition and salvage works contractors; proprietors or operators of mine drilling apparatus; proprietors or operators of computer services/rental; proprietors or operators of dockyards; persons engaged in the installation of water system, and gas or electric light, heat, or power; proprietors or operators of smelting plants; engraving, planting, and plastic lamination establishments; proprietors or operators of establishments for repairing, repainting upholstering, washing or greasing of vehicles, heavy equipment, vulcanizing, recapping and battery charging, proprietors or operators of furniture shops and establishments for planting or surfacing and precutting of lumber, sawmills under contract to saw or cut logs belonging to others; proprietors or operators of dry-cleaning or dyeing establishments, steam laundries, and laundries using washing machines; proprietors or owners of shops for the repair of any kind of mechanical and electrical devices, instruments, apparatus, or furniture and shoe repairing by machine or any mechanical contrivance; proprietors or operators of establishments or lots for parking purposes; proprietors or operator of tailor shops, dress shops, milliners and hatters, beauty parlors, barbershops, massage clinics, sauna, Turkish and Swedish baths, slenderizing and building saloons and similar establishments; photographic studios; funeral parlors; proprietors or operators of arrester and stevedoring, warehousing, or forwarding establishments; master plumbers, smiths, and house or sign painters; printers, bookbinders, lithographers, publishers except those engaged in the publication or printing of any newspaper, magazine, review or bulletin which appears at regular intervals with fix prices for subscription and sale and which is not devoted principally to the publication of the advertisements; business agents, private detective or watchman agencies, commercial and immigration brokers, and cinematographic film owners, lessors and distributors.
The term “resident foreign” when applied to a corporation means a foreign corporation not otherwise organized under the laws of the Philippines but engaged in trade or business within the Philippines.
Cooperative – is a duly registered association of persons, with common bond of interest, who have voluntarily joined together to achieve a lawful, common, social or economic end, making equitable contributions to the capital required and accepting a fair share of the risks and benefits of the undertaking in accordance with universally accepted cooperative principles.
Corporation – includes partnerships, no matter how created or organized, joint-stock companies, joint accounts (cuentas en participacion), associations or insurance companies but does not include general professional partnerships and a joint venture or consortium formed for the purpose of undertaking construction projects or engaging in petroleum, coal, geothermal, and other energy operations pursuant to an operating or consortium agreement under a service contract with the government. General professional partnerships are partnerships formed by persons for the sole purpose of exercising their common profession, no part of the income of which is derived from engaging in any trade or business.
Dealer in Securities include all persons who for their own account are engaged in the sale of stocks, bonds, exchange, bullion, coined money, bank notes, promissory notes, and other securities. It shall also include pre-need companies or those engaged in the sale of educational plans, health care plans, memorial plans, etc.
E-Commerce is generally used to cover the “distribution, marketing, sale or delivery of goods, and services by electronic means.”
Economic Life – the estimated period over which is anticipated that a machinery or equipment may be profitably utilized.
Essential Commodities - anything absolutely necessary and indispensable "necessities of life" such as food and shelter.
Exporter - means any person who is engaged in the business of exporting articles or goods of any kind from the Philippines for the sale or consumption abroad.
Fair Market Value – the price at which a property may be sold by a seller who is not compelled to sell and may be bought by a buyer who is not compelled to buy.
Fee – means a charge fixed by law or ordinance for the regulation or inspection of a business or activity or the service of a public office.
Franchise – a right or privilege, affected with public interest that is conferred upon private persons or corporations, under such terms and conditions as the government and its political subdivisions may impose in the interest of public welfare, security and safety.
General Building Contractor - is a person whose principal contracting business is in connection with any structure being built, or to be built, for the support, shelter and enclosure of persons, animal, chattels, or movable property of any kind, requiring in its construction the use of more than two unrelated building trades or crafts, or to do or superintend the whole or any part thereof. Such structure includes sewers and sewerage disposal plants and systems, parks, playgrounds, and other recreational works, refineries, chemical plants and similar industrial plants requiring specialized engineering knowledge and skill, powerhouses, power plants and other utility plants and installation, mines and metallurgical plants, cement and concrete works in connection with the above-mentioned fixed works.
A person who merely furnishes materials or supplies without fabricating them into or consuming them in the performance of the work of the general building contractor does not necessarily fall within this definition.
General Engineering Contractor - is a person or corporation whose principal contracting business is in connection with fixed works requiring specialized engineering, knowledge and skill, including the following divisions or subjects: irrigation, drainage, water power, water supply, flood control, inland waterways, harbors, docks and wharves, shipyards and ports, dams, hydroelectric projects, levees, river control and reclamation works, railroads, highways, streets and roads, tunnels, airports and airways, waste reduction plants, bridges, overpasses, underpasses and other similar works, pipelines and other systems for the transmission of petroleum and other liquid or gaseous substances, land-leveling and earth-moving projects, excavating, graving, trenching, paving, and surfacing works.
Gross Sales or Receipts – include the total amount of money or its equivalent representing the contract price, compensation or service fee, including the amount charged or materials supplied with the services and deposits or advance payments actually or constructively received for the services performed or to be performed for another person excluding discounts if determinable at the time of sales, sales return, excise tax, and value-added tax (VAT).
Holding Company - a controlling company that has one or more subsidiaries and confines its activities primarily to their management.
Hotel - includes any house or building or portion thereof in which any person or persons may be regularly harbored or received as transients or guests.
Idle Lands – taxable lands which are more than one thousand (1,000) square meters in area, one half (1/2) or more of which remains idle, unutilized, or unimproved by the owners of the property or persons having legal interest therein.
Importer - means any person who brings articles, goods, wares or merchandise of any kind or class into the Philippines from abroad for unloading therein, or which after such entry are consumed herein or incorporated into the general mass of property in the Philippines. In case of tax free articles, brought or imported in the Philippines by persons, entities or agencies exempt from tax which are subsequently sold, transferred, or exchanged in the Philippines to non-exempt private person or entities, the purchaser or recipient shall be considered the importer thereof.
Improvement – a valuable addition made to a real property or an amelioration in its conditions, amounting to more than a mere repair or replacement of parts involving capital expenditures and labor which is intended to enhance its value, beauty or utility or to adapt it for a new or further purposes.
Levy – means an imposition or collection of an assessment, tax, tribute, or fine.
License or Permit – is a right or permission granted in accordance with law by a competent authority to engage in some business, occupation or to engage in some transactions.
Lien – a charge upon real or personal property for the satisfaction of some debt or duty ordinarily by operation of law.
Lodging House - includes any house or building, or portion thereof, in which any person or persons may be regularly harbored or received as transients for compensation. Taverns or inns shall be considered as lodging houses.
Machinery – embraces machines, equipments, mechanical, contrivances, instruments, appliances or apparatus, which may or may not be attached, permanently or temporarily, to the real property. It includes the physical facilities for production, the installations and appurtenant service facilities, those which are mobile, self-powered or self-propelled, and those not permanently attached to the real property which are actually, directly, and exclusively used to meet the needs of the particular industry, business or activity and which by their very nature and purpose are designed for, or necessary to its manufacturing, mining, logging, commercial, industrial or agricultural purposes. It includes machinery in residential property.
Manufacturer includes every person who, for the purpose of sale or distribution to others and not for his own use or consumption, by physical or chemical process:
(1) alters the exterior texture, or inner substance of any raw material or manufactured or partially manufactured product in such manner as to prepare it for a special use or uses to which it could not have been put in its original condition;
(2) alters the quality of any such raw material or manufactured or partially manufactured product so as to reduce it to marketable shape or prepare it for any use of industry; or
(3) combines any raw materials or manufactured or partially manufactured product with other materials or products of the same or different kind in such manner that the finished product of such process or manufacture can be put to a special use or uses to which such materials, or manufactured or partially manufactured product in its original condition could not have been put.
Marginal Farmer of Fisherman – refers to an individual engaged in subsistence farming or fishing which shall be limited to the sale, barter or exchange of agricultural or marine products produced by himself and his immediate family.
Motor Vehicle – any vehicle propelled by any power other than muscular power using public roads, but excluding road rollers, trolley cars, street sweepers, sprinklers, lawn mowers, bulldozers, graders, forklifts, amphibian trucks and cranes if not used in public roads, vehicles which run on rails or tracks and tractors, trailers and traction engines of all kinds used exclusively for agricultural purposes.
Motorist Hotel (Motel) – includes any house or building or portion thereof in which persons maybe regularly harbored or received as transients or guests which is provided with a common enclosed or individually enclosed garage where such transients or guests may park their vehicles.
Night or Day Club - includes any place frequented at nighttime or daytime, as the case may be, where patrons are served food or drinks and are allowed to dance with their partners or with professional hostesses furnished by the management.
Occupation - means one’s regular business or employment or an activity, which principally takes up one’s time, thought and energies. It includes any calling, business, trade, profession, or vocation, which does not require the passing of an appropriate government examination.
Peddler – any person who, either for himself or on commission, travels from place to place and sells his goods or offers to sell and deliver the same. Whether a peddler is a wholesale peddler or a retail peddler of a particular commodity shall be determined from the definition of wholesale or retail as provided in this Section.
Pension House – a private or family-operated tourist boarding house, tourist guest house or tourist lodging house employing non- professional domestic helpers regularly catering to tourists and travelers, containing several independent let table rooms, providing common facilities such as toilets, bathrooms, showers, living and dining rooms and/or kitchen and where a combination of board and lodging may be provided.
Persons – means every natural or juridical being susceptible of rights and obligations or of being the subject of legal relations.
Privately-Owned Market means those market establishments including shopping centers funded and operated by private persons, natural or juridical, under government permit.
Privilege – means a right or immunity granted as a peculiar benefit, advantage or favor.
Profession - a calling, which requires the passing of an appropriate government examinations, such as law, medicine, public accountancy, engineering, etc.
Public Market refers to any place, building, or structure of any kind designated as such by the local board or council, except public streets, plazas, parks and the like.
Public Utility – includes electric power generating and distributing system, road, rail, air and water transport, postal, telegraph, radio or television broadcasting/cable-casting, wired/wireless communications via telephone, cell phone or two-way radios, and water companies, characterized by large investments because their optimum scale is huge. They are natural monopolies whose prices, profits and efficiency are not subject to competitive checks, and they provide essential services to industries and constituents. The operations of public utilities are granted through special laws or ordinances.
Real Estate Broker includes any person, other than a real estate salesman as hereinafter defined, who for another, and for a compensation or in the expectation or promise of receiving compensation, (1) sells, or offers for sale, buys or offers to buy, lists or solicits for prospective purchasers, or negotiate the purchase, sale or exchange of real estate or interests therein; (2) or negotiate loans on real estate; (3) or leases or offers to lease or negotiates the sale, purchase or exchange of lease, or rents or places for rent or collects rent from real estate or improvements thereon; (4) or shall be employed by or on behalf of the owner or owners of lots or other parcels of real estate at a stated salary or commission, or otherwise to sell such real estate or any part thereof in lots or parcels. This definition is not limited to licensed real estate brokers, thus, any unlicensed broker who were able to close a real estate sale is subject to taxes under this code.
Real Estate salesman means any natural person regularly employed by a real estate broker or working under commission basis or the likes to perform in behalf of such broker or any or all the functions of a real estate broker. One act of a character embraced within the above definition shall constitute the person performing or attempting to perform the function of the same as a real estate broker. The foregoing definition do not include a person who shall directly perform any acts aforesaid reference to his own property, where such acts are performed in the regular course of or as an incident to the management of such property; nor shall they apply to persons acting pursuant to a duly executed power-of-attorney from the owner authorizing final consummation by performer of a contract conveying a real estate by sale, mortgage or lease; nor shall they apply to any receiver, trustee or assignee in bankruptcy or insolvency or in any person acting pursuant to the order of any court; nor to a trustee selling under a deed of trust.
Real Estate Dealer includes any person engaged in the business of buying , selling, exchanging, leasing or renting property as principal and holding himself out as a full or part-time dealer in real estate or as owner of real property or properties rented or offered for rent for an aggregate amount of One Thousand Pesos (PhP 1,000.00) or more a year. Any person shall be considered as engaged in a business as real estate dealer by the mere fact that he is the owner or sub-lessor of property rented or offered for rent for an aggregate amount of One Thousand Pesos (PhpP1, 000.00) or more a year.
Real Estate Developer – To buy, sell, lease or otherwise acquire and own real estate, improve and develop the same, erect and construct building and other improvements thereon, to rent, sell or otherwise dispose of real estate and deal generally in all contracts pertaining to the purpose, sale, management and disposition of real estate; to erect, repair, remodel, construct, improve and develop homes, business industries and commercial buildings, hereditaments, easements and appurtenances thereto, wherein situated, to the fullest extent permitted by law.
Real Property – consists of land, building, machinery and other improvements temporarily or permanently attached to the real property, which from part of the land.
Reassessment – the assigning of new assessed values to real property, as the result of a general, partial, or individual reappraisal of the property.
Rectifier comprises every person who rectifies, purifies, or refines distilled spirits or wines by any person other than by original and continuous distillation from mash, wheat, wash, sap, or syrup through continuous closed vessels and pipes until the manufacture thereof is complete. Every wholesale or retail liquor dealer who has in his possession any still or mash tub, or who keeps any other apparatus for the purpose of distilling of spirits, or in any manner refining distilled spirits, shall also be regarded as a rectifier and as being engaged in the business of rectifying.
Rental – means the value of the consideration, whether in money or otherwise given for the enjoyment or use of a thing.
Replacement or Reproduction Cost – the cost that would be incurred on the basis of current prices in acquiring an equally desirable substitute property, or the cost of reproducing a new replica of the real property on the basis of current prices with the same or closely similar materials.
Residential Property – real property principally devoted to habitation.
Residents – refer to the natural persons, who have their habitual residence in the city where they exercise their civil right and fulfill their civil obligations, and to juridical persons for which the law or any or any other provision creating or recognizing them fixes their residence in a particular locality. In the absence of such laws, juridical persons are residents of the city where they have their legal residence or principal place of business or where they conduct their principal business or occupation.
Resort – any place or places with pleasant environment and atmosphere conducive to comfort, healthful relaxation and rest, offering food, sleeping accommodations and recreational facilities to the public for a fee.
Restaurant refers to any place, which provides food to the public, accepts orders from them at a price. These terms includes caterers.
Retail means a sale where the purchaser buys the commodity for his own consumption, irrespective of the quantity of the commodity sold.
Revenue – includes taxes, fees and charges that a state or its political subdivision collects and receives into the treasury for public purposes.
Secretary’s Fee – fees collected from persons requesting certifications, copies of official records and documents on file in the various offices of the City Government.
Service – mean the duties, work or functions performed or discharged by a government officer, or by a private person contracted by the government as the case may be. ejp
Shopping Centers – are business establishments containing sections of groceries, appliances, food, amusement activities, movie houses, fitness centers, clothing apparel, home furnishings, etc. housed in one building or several buildings. It may be operated by one person or by different persons renting spaces in the complex.
Social/Sport Clubs - are clubs and the social features of which are the individual purposes of each organization and which conducts various kinds of entertainment on sporting contests and have elaborate amusement or sport facilities.
Specialty Contractor - a person whose operations pertain to the performance of construction work requiring special skills and whose principal contracting business involves the use of specialized building trades or crafts.
Tax – means an enforced contribution, usually monetary in form, levied by the law-making body on persons and properties subject to its jurisdiction for the purpose of supporting governmental needs.
Theater or Cinema house - includes any edifice, building or enclosure where motion pictures are exhibited and/or where operatic or dramatic performances, presentations or plays, or other shows are held.
Vessel includes every type of boat, craft, or other artificial contrivances used, or capable of being used, as a means of transportation on water.
Warehouse – includes every building or portion thereof where goods, wares, merchandises, articles or other personal property are received and stored. A warehouse that accept orders and/or issue sales invoices shall be considered a branch or sales office.
Wharfage - means a fee assessed against the cargo of a vessel engaged in foreign or domestic trade based on quantity, weight or measure received and/or discharged by vessels.
Wholesale – means a sale where the purchaser buys or imports the commodities for re-sale to persons other than the end user regardless of the quantity of the transaction.
Section 1B.02. Words and Phrases Not Herein Expressly Defined. Words and phrases embodied in this Code not herein defined shall have the same definitions as found in R.A. 7160 and its Implementing Rules and Regulation as well as in other applicable laws.
Section 1B.03 Rules of Construction. General Rule - In construing the provisions of this Code, the following rules of construction shall be observed unless otherwise inconsistent with the manifest intent of the said provisions, or when applied would lead to absurd or highly improbable results.
a) Common and Technical Words – All words and phrases shall be construed and understood according to the common and approved usage of the language. But technical words and phrases and such other words which may have acquired a peculiar or appropriate meaning or that which is defined in this Code shall be construed and understood according to such technical, peculiar, appropriate meaning or as defined.
b) Gender and Number - Every word in this Code importing the masculine gender shall extend to both a male and female. Every word importing the singular number shall likewise be applicable to several persons or things and every word importing the plural number shall likewise apply to one person or thing.
c) Computation of Time – The time in which any act is to be done as provided for in this Code or in any rule or regulation issued pursuant to the provisions thereof, when expressed in days, shall be computed by excluding the first day and including the last day, except if the last day falls on a Sunday or holiday in which case the same shall be excluded from the computation, and the next business day shall be considered the last day.
d) References – All references to chapters, articles, sections are to chapters, articles, and sections in this code, unless otherwise specified.
e) Conflicting Provisions of Chapters or Articles – If the provisions of different chapters or articles contravene each other, the provision of each chapters or article shall prevail as to specific matters and questions involved therein.
f) Conflicting Provisions of Sections – If the provisions of different sections in the same chapter or article conflicts with each other, the provisions of the section which is last in point or sequence shall prevail.
