Preamble
WHEREAS, the taxpaying public has been persistently and incessantly clamoring for upward adjustment of the personal and additional exemptions; WHEREAS, inflation has increased the cost of living and has effectively pushed otherwise nontaxable, low-income individuals beyond the threshold of exemption, thereby justifying the demand for increase in personal and additional exemptions; WHEREAS, it is also necessary to re-structure and improve the progressivity of the graduated income tax rates in order to make the tax system more equitable not only as a source of revenue but also as a social instrument for redistribution of wealth and income; WHEREAS, it is necessary to amend further certain provisions of the National Internal Revenue Code in order to strengthen the enforcement powers of the Bureau of Internal Revenue; NOW, THEREFORE, I, FERDINAND E. MARCOS, President of the Republic of the Philippines, by virtue of the powers vested in me by the Constitution do hereby decree and order: