Not Amused By Taxes

Two concert promoters in the Philippines are locked in a verbal battle over a local amusement tax.

National law allows local governments in the Philippines to collect an amusement tax of up to 10 percent of gross receipts from cinemas, concert halls, stadiums and other entertainment venues. The levy, understandably, is not popular in the Philippine entertainment industry, and many insiders say it leads to corruption between companies and government officials.

A representative of a company called Beginnings at Twenty Plus Inc. complained to local media Sept. 21 that she had received “shabby treatment” when the company applied for both a performance permit and an exemption from the tax at the Pasay City Hall for a concert the company was promoting.

The representative claimed it took one month to issue the permit, and in the meantime sponsors and media partners pulled out citing time constraints. But the company’s main complaint was that the exemption was rejected even though another, higher-profile concert – Adam Lambert’s show at the SM Mall of Asia in Manila – was granted an exemption. Twenty Plus applied for its exemption because it planned to donate proceeds from the concert to a local organization.

Blue Dream Entertainment, which mounted the Lambert concert, told local news service the Inquirer that it did not receive an exemption.

“All we have is the permit,” he said. “We still have to pay the amusement tax.”

The Twenty Plus rep, however, stood by her claim, saying that an executive of Blue Dream personally told her that the company received an exemption within two days of submitting an application.