BIR exempts cigarette exports from tax stamps

CEBU, Philippines - The Bureau of Internal Revenue has ruled that tax stamps are no longer required for locally manufactured cigarette packs that are exported to other countries.

The BIR announced the change in its rule in the recently released Revenue Regulation (RR) 9-2015.

BIR's amended rules require cigarette manufacturers to indicate on the packaging that a product is for export sale and that the label should be different from those sold in the Philippines.

The revenue agency also mandates that manufacturers must prove that exported cigarettes reach their destination.

Locally sold cigarettes are required to have tax stamps. Unstamped cigarettes are to be confiscated and forfeited.

BIR said cigarettes produced for export will be given range of unique identifier codes (UIC) of internal revenue stamps. Manufacturers are to pay three centavos for every tax stamp they buy from BIR.

"The payment thereof shall be considered constructive affixture of the internal revenue stamps on such cigarettes for export," it noted in the regulation.

The BIR further said: "Any cigarettes found in any area in the Philippines without any internal revenue stamp affixed shall be presumed to have been withdrawn without the payment of excise tax due thereon."

Those cigarettes, it said, should be due for penalties based on the National Internal Revenue Code.

It was July last year when BIR issued RR 7-2014 which details the rules for the implementation of the Internal Revenue Stamps Integrated System (IRSIS) project.

IRSIS is a requirement under the Sin Tax Law or Republic Act 10351 which orders the placement of internal revenue stamps that have adequate security features on each pack of cigars and cigarettes. — Carlo S. Lorenciana (FREEMAN)