Under Section 232 of R.A. No. 7160 or the
Local Government Code, “[a] province or city or a municipality within the Metropolitan Manila Area my levy an annual
ad valorem tax on real property such as land, building, machinery, and other improvement not hereinafter specifically exempted.” Normally, each year's real property taxes or RPT fall due on the first day of January.
However, Section 251 of R.A. No. 7160 provides:
Sec. 251. Tax Discount for Advanced Prompt Payment.- If the basic real property tax and the additional tax accruing to the Special Education Fund (SEF) are paid in advance in accordance with the prescribed schedule of payment as provided under Section 250, the sanggunian concerned may grant a discount not exceeding twenty percent (20%) of the annual tax due. (Emphasis supplied)
With this in mind, I resolved to pay my RPT for 2012 last December 2011 to avail of the 20% discount.
I went to the Taguig City Hall and found that the Assessor's Office is at the ground floor, very near the main entrance. Prepared for the worst, I was pleasantly surprised by how fast the process took.
First, I went through
Step 1, when a taxpayer's property is identified via a Tax Declaration.
And then, I proceeded to
Step 2, where I was given the computation for the real property taxes I had to pay for 2012, with a
20% discount.
Step 3 was for payment. The cashier accepts cash and personal checks. If you pay using the latter, however, you will not get your receipt immediately. Instead, you will come back after a few days (presumably, after the check clears). There are at least 2 ATMs outside the Taguig City Hall, one of which (Land Bank), is right inside the compound.