BIR, SC in talks to align electronic notarization efforts

MANILA, Philippines — Internal Revenue Commissioner Charlito Martin R. Mendoza and Supreme Court Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa are spearheading discussions to align the Bureau of Internal Revenue’s Electronic Documentary Stamp Tax (eDST) system with the Supreme Court’s Electronic Notarization (eNotarization) facilities.

During their Aug. 11 meeting, Mendoza and Caguioa led BIR and SC representatives in discussing how the documentary stamp tax (DST) can be paid and affixed electronically, allowing electronically notarized documents to remain digital from end to end.

In a statement on Monday, Mendoza said the meeting aimed to address the paper-based DST affixation requirement, which the BIR and the SC had identified during their Feb. 27 discussions as the remaining paper-based step in an otherwise electronic notarization process.

READ: Electronic and remote notarization

“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. 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,” Mendoza said.

This reform builds on the SC’s Rules on Electronic Notarization, approved on February 4, 2025, and the BIR’s Revenue Regulations No. 28-2025, issued on Dec. 22, 2025, which implemented the enhanced eDST system and mandated its use by covered taxpayers, including notaries public.

READ: BIR chief highlights taxpayer-centric approach to digitalization

Mendoza said the initiative supports the Digital and Data Transformation and Service Excellence and Stakeholder Engagement pillars of BIR DARES, while helping modernize notarization—a core process in many business and private transactions—and supporting the government’s broader ease-of-doing-business agenda.

“We are redesigning processes so government systems work together and transactions become simpler, faster, and easier to verify. 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,” he added. /atm