The Bureau of Internal Revenue’s (BIR) has launched a new web-based electronic invoicing/receipting system (EIS) and sales reporting portal to strengthen the government’s tax audit processes by maximizing digitalization for the benefit of both the taxpayers and the BIR.

In a statement late Tuesday, June 21, the BIR said the EIS pilot project will start in July. It will involve 100 large taxpayers registered under the BIR’s Large Taxpayers Service, mainly those in e-commerce and in the business of exporting goods or services.

The BIR launched three portals: EIS Taxpayer Portal, EIS Certification Portal, and EIS Portal for Revenue Officers.

Using the EIS Taxpayer facility, taxpayers can issue and store e-invoices/e-receipts to their customers and process sales data such as buyer information, sales amount, discounts, among others.

“By using the web-based issuance facility, mandated taxpayers can issue, in single or in bulk, their electronic invoices/receipts. They can, likewise, issue correction documents, such as Debit Memo, Credit memo and other adjustment documents to a previously issued e-invoice. Moreover, the history of the corrected e-receipts/e-invoices can be inquired,” according to the BIR. Taxpayers can also download files to check the details of the e-invoices and e-receipts.

With EIS Certification Portal, meantime, taxpayers can have their sales data transmission system and request for certification. This will “enable transmission of sales data, request for EIS Permit to Transmit or PTT” as well as to request for using the sandbox and API testing.

The third portal or EIS Portal for Revenue Officers which the BIR can tap for reliable sales data, will be used for tax assessments. This portal will help the BIR to “increase their productivity and improve efficiency in auditing tax payment deficiencies and eventually collect more taxes for the government.”

“With several powerful functionalities” made possible by the three portals, the BIR said this could “ease taxpayers’ compliance with certain requirements of the (BIR) while strengthening further its audit capabilities for more tax collections.”

Digitalizing the BIR processes is part of provisions in the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Act.

Under the TRAIN law, the BIR is mandated to establish a system that is “capable of storing and processing the required data to require identified taxpayers to issue electronic receipts or invoices and electronically report their sales data” to the BIR.

The EIS pilot project was developed with the help of the South Korean government through the Korea International Cooperation Agency which commissioned Douzone Consortium for the undertaking.