Philippines to offer foreign tourists tax refund from 2024Reuter, MANILAPhilippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr has approved a value-added tax (VAT) refund program for foreign tourists by next year to attract more visitors, the Presidential Communications Office said yesterday. The plan is to allow foreigners to receive a VAT refund on items they are taking out of the Philippines, similar to what many other countries offer. Marcos is to issue an executive order to implement the tax refund plan. Last year’s total comprised 2.02 million foreign nationals and 628,445 Filipinos based abroad, which compared with only 163,879 tourists recorded in 2021 and was still significantly lower than the pre-pandemic annual level of 8.26 million. The government aims to boost visitor arrivals this year to 4.8 million tourists.

Source: Taipei Times January 29, 2023 23:39 UTC