BIR Rulings cannot be used as precedents

THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 22-2012 on May 7, 2012 clarifying the implementation of Revenue Regulations No. 5-2012.

Based on the RMC, all BIR rulings issued prior to Jan. 1, 1998 cannot anymore be used as a precedent by any taxpayer as a basis to secure rulings for themselves for current business transaction/s or in support of their position against any assessment. Moreover, any BIR rulings issued prior to Jan. 1, 1998 cannot also be used by any BIR action lawyer in issuing new rulings for request for rulings involving current business transaction/s.

However, BIR rulings issued prior to Jan. 1, 1998 remains to be valid but only to the taxpayer who was issued the ruling and covering the specific transaction/s which is the subject of the same ruling. BIR Rulings issued prior to Jan. 1, 1998 shall remain valid unless expressly notified of its revocation or unless the legal basis in law for such issuance has already been repealed or amended in the current Tax Code.

Use of Invoice/Receipt Generating Machines

Per Revenue Memorandum Order No. 12-2012, which contains the guidelines and procedures in the reporting of gross monthly sales generated from machines, all taxpayers using cash register machines, point-of-sale machines and other invoice/receipt generating machines are now required to report their gross monthly sales to the BIR using the Bureau’s Electronic Sales (eSales) Reporting System.

* **

You may contact the author at [email protected].