The Bureau of Internal Revenue (“BIR”) issued Revenue Regulations No. 8-2022 (“RR No. 8-2022”) to provide policies and guidelines for the implementation of Section 237 and 237-A of the National Internal Revenue Code (“NIRC”), as amended by R.A. No. 10963 or the “TRAIN” Law. Essentially, RR No. 8-2022 prescribes requirements on the issuance of electronic receipts/invoices (hereby known as e-Receipts/e-Invoices) in lieu of manual receipts of sales/commercial invoices and on the electronic reporting of these sales data to the BIR.
RR No. 8-2022 applies to all taxpayers that are mandated to issue electronic receipts or sales/commercial invoices under Section 237 of the NIRC, specifically those engaged in the export of goods and services, those engaged in electronic commerce (e-commerce), and those under the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS). For these taxpayers, except for taxpayers engaged in e-commerce, they are required to electronically report or transmit their sales data to the BIR through the use of their Sales Data Transmission System. On the other hand, taxpayers not covered by the mandate may issue electronic receipts or sales/commercial invoices in lieu of manual receipts/invoices.
The BIR established an Electronic Invoicing/Receipting System (EIS) capable of storing and processing the data required to be transmitted by covered taxpayers using their Sales Data Transmission System. To comply with the TRAIN Law, taxpayers are required to comply with the following:
Section 4 of RR No. 8-2022 provides for policies and guidelines which all taxpayers covered by the Regulations must follow. All covered taxpayers required to issue e-Receipts/e-Invoices and transmit sales data electronically under Section 2 of these Regulations are required to develop a Sales Data Transmission System based on the Standard Application Programming Interface (“API”) Guidelines. But before the actual transmission of sales data to the EIS, enrollment of taxpayers must be necessary for security purposes.
The developed Sales Data Transmission System must be certified by BIR through the EIS. Upon approval of the application, an “EIS CERT” must be issued to the taxpayer. Taxpayers are required to submit applications for the issuance of Permit to Transmit (“PTT”) to allow transmission of sales data to the EIS. Taxpayers must apply for EIS CERT and PTT regardless of the role of or arrangement with the software provider. Sales reporting must be done immediately for transactions on the day following the issuance of the PTT. Transmission of sales data must be done real time or near real time provided that it should be done within three (3) calendar days from the date of the transaction. A penalty will be imposed for the delayed or late or no transmission of sales data to EIS.
Taxpayers who are not mandated to issue e-Receipts/e-Invoices and/or not mandated to transmit sales data to EIS may continue to use manual receipts/invoices or issue CAS/POS-generated receipts/invoices based on existing revenue issuances. But if the taxpayers opt to issue e-Receipts/e-Invoices and transmit sales data to EIS, they must comply with the provisions of these Regulations. Taxpayers using the EIS must not be required to submit Summary List of Sales (SLS), but the Summary List of Purchases and Importations are still required to be submitted.
Finally, Section 5 of RR No. 8-2022 provides for other policies on the issuance of receipts or invoices. For sales and transfer of merchandise or for services rendered valued at one hundred pesos or more, all persons subject to an internal revenue tax must issue duly registered receipts or sale or commercial invoices, showing the date of transaction, quantity, unit cost, and description of merchandise or nature of service. The receipts/sales or commercial invoices must be serially numbered and must show, among other things, the name, business style, Taxpayer Identification Number including the branch code, business address of Head Office or Branch, whichever is applicable, and such other information as required. Moreover, the invoicing requirements under Section 113 (B) of the Tax Code must still be complied with.