Lawyer Rule Oporto, a tax expert and senior director for business tax services at SGV & Co., has urged businesses engaged in exports and e-commerce to comply with the invoicing requirements as the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) is expanding the coverage of its electronic invoicing system (EIC) implementation.
The EIS is an electronic platform developed by the BIR with the capability to receive, process, and store data from taxpayers.
Oporto noted that the BIR has identified an additional 100 taxpayers for this year’s rollout, which will cover the large taxpayers and those engaged in the export of goods and services and e-commerce.
The BIR is also eyeing an additional 500 taxpayers for inclusion in the pilot by the fourth quarter, said Oporto in a recent webinar conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (AmCham).
The legal basis for EIS implementation is the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion Law (RA 10963) particularly Sections 237 (issuance of receipts or sales or commercial invoices) and 237-A (electronic sales reporting system).
Last year, the BIR issued Revenue Regulations (RR) No. 8-2022 on the policies and guidelines for the use of EIS and RR 9-2022 on the admissibility of sales documents in electronic format.
RR 8-2022 states that taxpayers mandated to comply with e-invoicing are those engaged in the export of goods and services, those engaged in e-commerce, and large taxpayers.
However, Oporto noted that the revenue regulations are not exhaustive and there are still questions that remain unanswered.
She said the agency will be issuing revenue memorandum circulars (RMCs) to clarify RR 8-2022 and provide guidelines to covered taxpayers on EIS implementation.
Taxpayers not mandated to issue e-receipts, e-invoices and transmit sales data to the EIS may continue to use manual receipts and invoices or issue computerized accounting system (CAS) or point-of-sales (POS)-generated receipts or invoices based on existing revenue issuances, said Oporto.
However, she continued that taxpayers who opt to issue e-receipts or e-invoices and transmit sales data to the EIS may comply with these regulations’ provisions.
Oporto also clarified that the sales data should be transmitted to the EIS, not the source documents.
