BIR’s one-stop shop: Central Business Portal

As consumers, we are often faced with the dilemma of having a variety of choices over a certain product or service because of the fact that we cannot have everything we want in one product, service or transaction. For example, a bank may be able to offer competitive interest rates for savings account, but may lack the best rates for investment. An insurance company may offer the best investment advice, but may lack the multitude of products and services available to its clients and which only a bank may be able to provide. These multiple interests compel a consumer to enter into varied several dealings, accounts, and transactions with different companies. At times, this may lead a consumer to get confused with the products he or she is engaged with, making it more complicated than it should ever be.

Thus, the idea of a one-stop shop came into existence. A one-stop shop is a firm that offers a multitude of products or services to its customers, all under one roof. A one-stop-shop can refer to a literal roof – a specific physical location where all the business a client has can be carried out – or it can refer to a company that handles a variety of goods or services. Compared to visiting separate institutions for each area of need, the one-stopshop saves the consumer a lot of time and effort1.

To help business registrants in the establishment of their business ventures, the BIR issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 15-2021 last Jan. 28, announcing the relaunching of Central Business Portal (CBP), a project of Anti-Red Tape Authority (ARTA) in coordination with the Department of Information and Communication Technology.

The CBP is an online system which serves as a central system to receive applications and captures application data involving business-related transactions from different government agencies (SEC, BIR, SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-lbig) and a platform that will promote the use of the electronic payment systems for the said agencies.

With CBP, a business registrant will be able to do and avail of the following features: (a) Registration with Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and issuance of a company registration number (CRN). (b) Issuance of a  Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) for new corporations. (c) Identification of the national internal revenue taxes which the new corporation will be liable to. (d) Payment of the annual registration fee (ARF) of P500 and loose Documentary Stamp Tax (DST) of P30 through the ePayment facilities or manually at the Revenue District Office (RDO). And, (e) Generation of BIR electronic Certificate of Registration (COR) which can be printed on A4 paper size by the taxpayers. The electronic COR bears a Quick Response (QR) Code that serves as a security feature to prove authenticity of the COR.

New corporations opting to pay ARF and loose DST manually shall complete its business registration at the respective RDO by submitting the following CBP generated documents printed by the taxpayer, together with the checklist of documentary requirements for corporation (Annex A): (a) CBP unified application form (Annex B); (b) Accomplished tax type questionnaire (Annex C). And, (c) Pre-filled BIR form 0605 (payment form).

After securing the BIR electronic COR through the CBP, the taxpayer shall proceed to the RDO indicated in the electronic COR to buy its BIR printed receipts/invoices (BPR/BPI) in order to start its business operation immediately after its registration. Otherwise, it may apply for Authority to Print (ATP) its own receipts/invoices to be printed by BIR accredited printers.

For its initial implementation, the CBP shall be available to the following domestic corporations: (a) Corporations with two to four incorporators. (b) Regular corporations whose incorporators are juridical entities and/or the capital structure is not covered by the 25-25 percent rule. And, (c) One Person Corporation.

Corporations not registering through the CBP shall comply with the documentary requirements provided in Annex A2.1 of Revenue Memorandum Circular 57-2020.

The creation of CBP through the DICT is mandated by Republic Act 11032 or the Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018. By mandate of a joint memorandum circular among the abovementioned agencies, along with the Department of Finance, Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Cooperative Development Authority, ARTA will oversee the implementation of the CBP and will provide support, facilitation, and assistance to the participating agencies throughout its development and implementation.

With CBP, business applicants can now register their business in just one step, thus making it hassle free as compared to the previous manual process that involves several distinct procedures for each government agencies and which take days to be completed.

The creation of CBP is expected to reduce long queues and shorten the processing period for business registrations in the said agencies. CBP also aim to suppress corruption in the government by removing “fixers”, thus paving the way for a corrupt-free government.

Shirley Marie D. Cada is a supervisor from the tax group of KPMG R.G. Manabat & Co. (KPMG RGM&Co.), the Philippine member firm of KPMG International. KPMG RGM&Co. has been recognized as a Tier 1 tax practice and Tier 1 transfer pricing practice by the International Tax Review.

This article is for general information purposes only and should not be considered as professional advice to a specific issue or entity.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of KPMG International or KPMG RGM&Co. For comments or inquiries, please email [email protected] or [email protected].

1 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/o/onestopshop.asp

R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity.

2 R.G. Manabat & Co., a Philippine partnership and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative (“KPMG International”), a Swiss entity.