The Philippines is transitioning to the implementation of its new Electronic Invoicing System (EIS) with the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) pilot implementation of its e-invoicing, e-receipting and e-sales system starting July 2022.
Republic Act No. 10963 or the TRAIN Law, which took effect on January 1, 2018, introduced the EIS requiring taxpayers in e-commerce, large taxpayers, and exporters within the next five (5) years from the TRAIN Law’s effectivity, or on or before January 1, 2023, to electronically issue their invoices or receipts, as well as report their sales data to the BIR at the point of sale.
The EIS can be accessed online and hosts three portals namely, EIS Taxpayer Portal, EIS Certification Portal and EIS Portal for Revenue Officers. The EIS may be used by taxpayers to issue electronic invoices, which include sales invoices, official receipts, debit, and credit notes, to their customers/clients.
The EIS is envisioned to include an invoice report that will be subsequently sent to the government’s central platform after ensuring that invoices have been sent to the taxpayers’ respective customers/clients. The implementation of the EIS is geared to go hand in hand with the BIR’s digital transformation program that is targeted to simplify tax reporting, address issues on compliance and business transactions transparency, and cut the cost of taxpayer transactions on issuance of paper-copy invoices and receipts.
While the Department of Finance has yet to issue relevant revenue issuances and more specific guidelines on e-invoicing/e-receipting, it has expressed that its target for the full implementation of the provision is by January of 2023. In preparation thereof, the BIR has tapped the country’s top 100 large taxpayers to launch the e-invoicing system.
Please be guided accordingly.
Source:
P&A Grant Thornton
Certified Public Accountants
As published in SunStar Cebu, dated 16 June 2022
