BIR streamlines registration, documentary requirements

MANILA, Philippines - Tax registration was just made easier by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) for both individuals and businesses.

Under Revenue Memorandum Circular 93-2016, documentary requirements to register for tax identification number (TIN), apply for authority to issue receipts and invoices and keep book of accounts were “streamlined.”

“This was in response to President Duterte’s call to simplify transactions with the BIR,” assistant commissioner Marissa Cabreros said in a text message.

“With the streamlining, it is much easier and faster to follow primary and secondary registration procedures,” she said.

The latest circular covers primary registration that involved registering one’s name or entity in the BIR database for tax payments and secondary ones, which pertain to other tax activities like issuance of receipts and invoices, transferring TIN registration and keeping book of accounts.

In particular, self-employed individuals, estates and trusts no longer have to submit proof of ownership or legal possession of their businesses, contract of service and a sworn statement of their capital.

One government-issued ID, instead of two, is also now required, while waivers for tax exemptions that could be claimed by two individuals were dropped.

The same waivers are also no longer needed for employees, while any ID and not only birth certificate is now accepted.

BIR also removed the proof of ownership requirements for corporations, while also reducing the number of documents for authority to issue receipts to four from six.

For one-time transactions of transferring properties or stocks, claiming winnings and vehicle sales, only the required BIR forms and one government ID will be required.

Previously, two IDs were being asked for individual taxpayers, while for entities, bank certifications or contracts were needed depending on the transaction involved.

These are just some of the changes made. Complete details may be viewed in the annexes of the circular at the BIR website.

Sought for comment, business groups welcomed the development that followed President Duterte’s order to cut red tape in the bureaucracy.

“Any simplification of the requirements will be of great help,” said George Barcelon, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in a phone interview.

He added the next step should be to educate BIR personnel of the new regulations to ease their implementation.

John Forbes, senior adviser at the American Chamber of Commerce, agreed and even suggested that more should be done to reduce paper transactions.

“We would encourage expanding online processing and payments... A lot of traffic is caused by moving paper invoices, paper checks and paper ORs (official receipts),” Forbes said in a text message.