The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Supreme Court (SC) are working to integrate their electronic systems to eliminate the remaining paper-based step in the notarization of digital documents.
BIR commissioner Charlito Martin Mendoza and SC associate justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa led a meeting to explore linking the bureau’s Electronic Documentary Stamp Tax (eDST) system with the judiciary’s Electronic Notarization facilities.
Representatives of the two agencies discussed mechanisms for the electronic payment and constructive affixture of documentary stamp tax (DST), which would allow electronically notarized documents to remain digital throughout the process.
The initiative addresses a procedural gap identified during initial discussions on Feb. 27, 2026. Although documents may be executed, signed, notarized, and verified electronically, the physical affixture of DST remains a paper-based requirement.
“If a document can be executed, signed, notarized, and verified electronically, it should not have to go back to paper just to comply with the Documentary Stamp Tax,” Mendoza said.
“That is why we are working with the Supreme Court to remove this remaining paper-based step and make the entire process seamless and more verifiable.”
The SC approved the Rules on Electronic Notarization on Feb. 4, 2025. The BIR subsequently issued Revenue Regulations No. 28-2025 on Dec. 22, 2025, introducing an enhanced eDST system and requiring its use by covered taxpayers, including notaries public.
Integrating the two systems is expected to reduce manual processing and make digitally notarized documents easier to verify. The BIR also linked the initiative to the government’s broader digitalization and ease-of-doing-business programs.
“We are redesigning processes so government systems work together and transactions become simpler, faster, and easier to verify,” Mendoza said.
“This cooperation with the Supreme Court shows how inter-agency coordination can produce practical and lasting reforms that make it easier and safer for people and businesses to transact.”
