To encourage more people to save for their retirement, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo recently signed a bill that would remove tax fees from personal retirement accounts.
This bill specifically targets to promote a culture of savings among Filipinos who, unlike employed individuals, are not members of the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) because they are not required by law to be one.
This includes overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), those who are self-employed and entrepreneurs. Senator Eduardo Angara is the principal author of this bill called Personal Equity and Retirement Account (Pera).
Under the new law, an individual may make a maximum annual contribution of P100,000 to a Pera account, or P200,000 for married individuals, while an OFW and his or her spouse may make a contribution of as high as P400,000.