ESTATE TAX AMNESTY ROUND 3?

Good news for families with unsettled estates.

On Feb. 18, 2026, Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri filed Senate Bill No. 1865 seeking to extend the Estate Tax Amnesty until Dec. 31, 2028. The previous extension expired on June 14, 2025. If passed, this would reopen the window once again.

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: the real bottleneck in estate settlement isn’t the tax.

Two years ago, we invited Atty. Jojo Mejia to speak on Estate Settlement Taxation and Planning under TRAIN. His key message: tax rates are rarely the main issue. The problem is people.

In practice, estates remain unsettled not because heirs refuse to pay — but because families can’t complete the paperwork. Some heirs are abroad. Some are estranged. Some can’t be located at all.

When documents stall for years, desperation creeps in. That’s when risky decisions happen — including forged signatures just to push through a sale or transfer.

This is where reform is truly needed. Without structural fixes, we’re simply resetting the clock.

Now consider the buyer caught in the middle.

An heir who was previously absent resurfaces years later and attempts to rescind a completed sale. The buyer — who paid in full and relied on signed documents — is dragged into litigation.

There should be stronger statutory protection for buyers in good faith.

One possible solution: if a buyer relied on apparently valid documents and acted in good faith, any later-appearing heir should pursue claims only against the heirs who benefited from the sale — not the innocent buyer.

Another option: require identified heirs to set aside part of the proceeds in escrow or trust for a defined period, similar to an heir’s bond, to cover potential future claims.

Until government addresses the deeper structural issues — missing heirs, fragmented families, procedural rigidity, and lack of buyer safeguards — extending the amnesty alone may once again fall short.

The tax isn’t the real problem.

The system is.