FACTS
Petitioners, the duly
appointed and qualified Judges David Nitafan, Wenceslaus Polo and Maximo Savellano,
Jr. , seek to prohibit and/or perpetually enjoin respondents., the Commissioner
of Internal Revenue and the Financial Officer of the Supreme Court, from making
any deduction of withholding taxes from their salaries. They submit that “any tax withheld from their
emoluments or compensation as judicial officers constitutes a decrease or
diminution of their salaries contrary to the provision of Section 10, Article
VIII of the 1987 Constitution mandating that “during their continuance in
office, their salary shall not be decreased.
ISSUE
Whether or not the
imposition of taxes in the compensation of Judicial officers is contrary to the
1987 Constitution.
HELD
Yes. The clear intent of
the Constitutional Commission was to delete the proposed expressed grant of
exemption from payment of income tax to members of the Judiciary, so as to
“give substance to equality among the three branches of Government”. It was further expressly made clear that the
salaries of members of the Judiciary would be subject to the general income tax
applied to all tax payers. With the foregoing pretation, the rulling that “the
imposition of income tax upon the salary of the judges is a diminution thereof,
and so violates the Constitution” in Perfecto vs. Meer, as affirmed in Endencia
vs. David must be declared discarded.
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