BIR tightens rules on tax practitioners

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue has issued new regulations which would effectively tighten rules on tax practitioners or tax agents to enable them to make better representations for taxpayers and the BIR.

Under the new regulations, the BIR will tighten the accreditation of tax practitioners by requiring more documents to be submitted to the agency.

Furthermore the BIR will also review the positions of BIR officials who compose the accreditation board as well as the functions and authority of the BIR commissioner on the accreditation of tax practitioners.

The new issuance now requires applicants with minimum qualifications of at least 18 hours for three years of continuing professional education (CPE) in taxation from trainings and seminars conducted by the BIR or private institutions where the training hours earned are printed on the certificates and obtained not more than a year prior to the application and renewal for accreditation.

Furthermore, under the new issuance, the BIR also requires individual applicants to submit Certificate of Registration with the Board of Accountancy (BOA) and for lawyers, an Attorney’s Roll Number and Mandatory Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Compliance Number.

“If an applicant is not a Certified Public Accountant, he must submit a certified copy of transcript of records with 18 units in accounting or taxation and a written certification of the CPE hours earned,” the BIR said in the new regulation.

Those seeking to renew their accreditation, the BIR also imposed additional requirements including identification cards and licenses and an expired certificate of accreditation.

The agency also changed the composition of the accreditation board by designating higher-ranking BIR officials to the body.

The new issuance designates the BIR Deputy Commissioner from the previous Assistant Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner from then Division Chief to compose the Revenue National Accreditation Board (RNAB).

It is also now required the accreditation board to make a random review of the financial statements audited by the accredited external auditor.

“For an external auditor whose accreditation has been cancelled, he may re-apply for accreditation after two years. If his accreditation has been cancelled more than twice, his re-accreditation shall not be granted,” the BIR also said.