Pilot program for 100 largest taxpayers in the Philippines

In 2018, the Philippines launched the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN), in which several tax reform proposals were introduced and discussed. Under the TRAIN law, large taxpayers and exporters are required to begin issuing e-invoices and receipts, and reporting sales data, to the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) at the point of sale within five years from the introduction of the TRAIN law.

As part of introducing the obligation of e-invoicing in the B2B sector, the Philippines government plans to implement a pilot program. It is based on the South Korean model. Like that model, it will be clearance model. The 100 largest taxpayers are to take part in it. For those entities, mandatory e-invoicing will go live from July 2022 (the implementation was originally expected to take place in January 2022).  After the launch of the pilot program, it is planned to implement e-invoicing gradually in 2023. It is to start with B2B transactions of large payers and exporters.

At the moment, e-invoicing is permitted and electronic documents have the same validity as paper-based counterparts. However, a hard copy is still required unless approval from the authorities has been obtained. 

There’s more you should know about e-invoicing in the Philippines – learn more about the new and upcoming regulations.