Tax on signs, signboards, and billboards.
Section 100
SEC. 100. Tax on signs, signboards, and billboards.—No person shall display, maintain on his premises, or erect any outdoor sign, signboard, or billboard in a place exposed to public view until a license for each location therefor shall have been secured from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, for which a fee of one peso and fifty centavos shall be charged, and such person shall not later than three days after such sign, signboard, or billboard has been displayed or erected pay an annual tax thereon at the following rates, which tax shall cover only the signs, signboards, or billboards designated and displayed at the place specified in the license: (a) Signs and signboards on buildings used for business purposes, per square meter, two pesos and fifty centavos; (b) Electric signs, billboards, and spaces used for posting or displaying temporary signs, and all signs displayed on premises not occupied by buildings, per square meter, four pesos. No tax shall be collected under this section on signs or signboards announcing exclusively the name or style, address, and nature of business of a person when the sign or signboard appears on the premises in which the business of such person is carried on; but such person shall not be exempted from complying with all other requirements of this Act with reference to signs, signboards, and billboards. Any signboard, or billboard which shall be displayed or erected without a license having been issued therefor as herein required shall be forfeited to the Government. No sign, signboard, or billboard shall be erected or displayed on public lands or buildings. If after due investigation the Collector of Internal Revenue shall decide that any sign, signboard, or billboard displayed or exposed to public view is offensive to the sight or is otherwise a nuisance, he may by summary order direct the removal of such sign, signboard, or billboard, and if same is not removed within ten days after he has issued such order he may himself cause its removal, and the sign, signboard, or billboard shall thereupon be forfeited to the Government, and the owner thereof charged with the expenses of the removal so effected. When the sign, signboard, or billboard ordered to be removed as herein provided shall not comply with the provisions of the general regulations of the Collector of Internal Revenue, no rebate or refund shall be allowed for any portion of a year for which the taxes may have been paid. Otherwise, the Collector of Internal Revenue may in his discretion make a proportionate refund of the tax for the portion of the year remaining for which the taxes were paid. An appeal may be had from the order of the Collector of Internal Revenue to the Secretary of Finance and Justice whose decision thereon shall be final. Nothing in this section shall be construed to abridge the power of any municipality or city to regulate advertising agencies or to suppress outdoor advertising as a nuisance.