Filipino Recruitment Firms Call For Tax Breaks

by Mary Swire, Tax-News.com, Hong Kong

03 November 2008

The Filipino government has been urged to consider the possibility of giving greater tax breaks to recruiters within the country who train overseas Filipino workers.

The call was made by the vice president of the Federal Association of Manpower Exporters (FAME), Jackson Gan, who has stated that the government should give greater rewards to those companies who specialise in training Filipino citizens to work abroad, thus opening up new employment opportunities for Filipino workers.

Many of the country's companies already qualify for government tax breaks, but recruitment agencies have not been acknowledged within this regime, leaving them fighting to compete for employees with more affluent businesses who can offer greater benefits and levels of training.

Mr Gan pointed out that, if more tax breaks were given to this sector, more companies would be likely to offer employees the chance to gain an apprenticeship which would give them the opportunity to work abroad.

In addition to this, Gan also asked the government to consider releasing more funds to some of its own recruitment agencies, claiming that this may reverse the drop in skilled workers amongst the country's own service sectors.

Currently, several key sectors within the Philippines - construction, ship-building and information technology, for example - are severely lacking the skilled workforce they require, and Mr Gan is positive that the resources freed up by lowering tax expenditure and increasing funding will allow such companies to begin offering more individuals the chance to train properly in these sectors.

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