BIR Certificate of Registration: Requirements, Filing, and Updates

The BIR Certificate of Registration, known as Form 2303, is the document from the Bureau of Internal Revenue that confirms you are a registered taxpayer in the Philippines, lists your Taxpayer Identification Number, and spells out which taxes you must file and when. You get it by filing the correct application form with supporting documents at the Revenue District Office covering your business address, or online through ORUS, and processing takes up to three working days. Since the Ease of Paying Taxes Act took effect in January 2024, the certificate is permanent: no annual renewal, no registration fee.¹

Who Has to Register

Section 236 of the National Internal Revenue Code requires every person subject to any internal revenue tax to register once with the Revenue District Office that has jurisdiction over their place of business or employment.² In practice that covers almost everyone earning income:

Self-employed individuals, freelancers, and sole proprietors.
Licensed professionals such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, and accountants.
Corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, one-person corporations, and joint ventures.
Non-stock, non-profit organizations, even those claiming tax-exempt status.
First-time employees without a TIN, who must register within ten days of their employment date.³
Nonresident foreign corporations doing business or earning income in the Philippines.⁴

Each location needs its own registration. If you have a head office plus a branch, warehouse, sales outlet, or storage place, register each one.²

Which Application Form to Use

The BIR sorts applicants by taxpayer type, and filing the wrong form sends you back to the counter.

BIR Form 1901 covers self-employed individuals, sole proprietors, professionals, mixed-income earners, nonresident aliens engaged in trade or business, and estates or trusts.⁵
BIR Form 1902 is for employees getting a TIN for the first time because of employment. Your employer can file it for you if you authorize them.³
BIR Form 1903 is for corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, non-stock non-profit organizations, joint ventures, and other non-individual entities.⁶

Each form asks for your full legal name, registered business address, and a description of your business activities. Leave the TIN field blank if you do not have one; the BIR assigns it during processing.

Documents to Bring

Self-Employed Individuals and Professionals

Prepare the completed BIR Form 1901, a government-issued ID showing your name, address, and birthdate, and proof of your business address such as a lease contract or property title. Operating under a trade name means bringing your DTI Certificate of Business Name Registration.⁵ Professionals should also have their PRC license or IBP membership card on hand.

Corporations and Other Non-Individual Entities

Submit BIR Form 1903, your SEC Certificate of Registration (or Cooperative Development Authority certificate for cooperatives), a Mayor’s Business Permit or a duly received application for one, and proof of the registered address. One-person corporations bring the SEC Digital Certificate or Form for Appointment of Officers in place of a board resolution.

Employees

Employees file two original copies of BIR Form 1902 with a government-issued ID. Married female employees include a photocopy of their marriage contract, and foreign national employees provide a passport copy showing the bio page and entry stamps.³

Nonresident Foreign Corporations

Apply through ORUS with an apostilled official document from your home country’s government that shows the entity name and principal office address, such as articles of incorporation or a certificate of tax residency. If a representative files for you, include an apostilled board resolution naming that representative and a copy of their government-issued ID.⁴

How to File

In Person at the RDO

Walk-in applications go to the Revenue District Office covering your principal place of business. The New Business Registrant counter checks your documents for completeness and tells you what is missing if anything is. Some RDOs run a short taxpayer briefing on filing obligations and deadlines before releasing the certificate.

Stated processing time is three working days from receipt of a complete application.⁷ Straightforward applications at quieter offices can finish the same day; busier offices use the full three.

You pay no registration fee. Republic Act No. 11976, the Ease of Paying Taxes Act, abolished the ₱500 annual fee, so there is no BIR Form 0605 to file at registration and no recurring January 31 payment.¹

Online Through ORUS

The Online Registration and Update System at orus.bir.gov.ph accepts applications from nearly every taxpayer type: sole proprietors, professionals, employees, corporations, partnerships, cooperatives, non-stock non-profit organizations, joint ventures, and nonresident foreign corporations.⁸ Create an account, complete the applicable form on-screen, upload scanned supporting documents, and submit. The RDO processes the application within the same three-working-day window.

If ORUS is unavailable, you can file in person at your RDO instead. Nonresident foreign corporations use RDO No. 39 in South Quezon City as the fallback.⁴

What Appears on the Certificate

The certificate is your compliance roadmap. It shows:

Your Taxpayer Identification Number, the permanent identifier for every BIR transaction.
Your registered name, and any trade name.
The business address tied to this registration.
The tax types you must file: income tax, value-added tax, withholding tax, or percentage tax, depending on your profile.
The filing frequency for each tax type, whether monthly, quarterly, or annual.

The BIR now issues both physical and electronic Certificates of Registration. Under Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 38-2026, both formats carry a QR code that anyone can scan to verify authenticity and current registration status through the BIR’s verification portal at verify.bir.gov.ph.⁹ Government agencies, banks, and e-commerce platforms are directed to accept the eCOR. When you scan the QR code, check that the URL points to the official BIR domain before relying on the result.

What You Have to Do After You Get It

Display It

Post the certificate in a visible spot at your place of business. This is required, not optional, and failing to display it carries a ₱1,000 compromise penalty.¹⁰ Online sellers must also post proof of registration on their e-commerce page or marketplace seller profile under Revenue Regulations No. 7-2024.¹

Register Your Books of Accounts

Register the books you will use to record financial transactions. Through ORUS, the system generates a QR stamp that you paste on the first page of your books. For manual registration, submit BIR Form 1905 with permanently bound books. A computerized accounting system also needs a Permit to Use, and you must submit electronic records in the BIR’s standard audit file format. There is no fee.

Get an Authority to Print

Before issuing official invoices or receipts, file BIR Form 1906 at your RDO with a final sample of your invoice layout. Processing takes roughly three working days. Receipts issued without this authority have no legal standing for tax purposes.¹¹

File Returns Even With Zero Income

You must file tax returns even for periods when your business earned nothing. Skipping a filing because nothing happened does not erase the obligation. The BIR classifies non-filers as “stop-filers,” which triggers administrative penalties. Willful failure to file a return or pay tax due carries a fine of at least ₱10,000 and imprisonment of one to ten years.¹²

One future carve-out to be aware of: starting March 2026, Revenue Regulations No. 11-2025 requires certain taxpayers to move to the BIR’s Electronic Invoicing System. The first wave covers online and digital sellers, taxpayers registered with the Large Taxpayers Service, corporations with annual sales exceeding ₱1 billion, and businesses already using BIR-approved computerized invoicing. Ordinary small businesses fall outside this first wave.

Updating Your Registration

File BIR Form 1905 whenever your registration details change. Typical triggers are a new business address, a new trade name, added lines of business, or a change in accounting period.¹³

New Address Within the Same RDO

Bring a photocopy of your updated Mayor’s Permit, DTI Certificate, or SEC Certificate showing the new address. If you have unused pre-printed invoices, submit a letter asking to continue using them temporarily.

Transferring to a Different RDO

Moving into a different RDO’s jurisdiction is a two-step filing. File Form 1905 in triplicate at your old RDO, along with an inventory of unused invoices and a notarized Transfer Commitment Form if you have open cases. Then file again at the new RDO with your updated SEC or DTI documents, Mayor’s Permit, and any unused invoices the old RDO cleared for continued use.¹³

Adding or Changing Business Activities

File Form 1905 with a photocopy of your amended SEC Certificate, DTI Certificate, or Mayor’s Permit reflecting the change. The BIR updates the certificate and may assign additional tax types.

Closing the Business

When you permanently stop operating, file BIR Form 1905 for closure rather than walking away. The RDO reviews whether you have outstanding tax liabilities or open cases.¹⁴

Submit:

Two original copies of BIR Form 1905.
An inventory of remaining goods, supplies, and capital assets.
An inventory of unused invoices, receipts, and other accounting forms.
The original Certificate of Registration, physical or electronic.
Original copies of any BIR permits, such as your Authority to Print.

You pay a ₱30 documentary stamp fee. Processing runs about three days, but the clock pauses if the BIR finds unpaid taxes or unresolved cases. You get 30 days to settle any findings; miss that window and the application is considered denied, forcing you to restart closure.¹⁴

Penalties for Not Registering or Not Filing

Operating without a valid registration is not a paperwork issue. The BIR enforces registration through both compromise penalties and criminal provisions.

The published compromise schedule sets these amounts based on where the business is located:¹⁰

Failure to register in a city: ₱20,000.
Failure to register in a first-class municipality: ₱10,000.
Failure to register in a second-class municipality: ₱5,000.
Failure to register in a third-class municipality: ₱2,000.
Not displaying the certificate: ₱1,000.

These are administrative penalties the BIR can impose without a court proceeding. They represent a settlement amount intended to close out the violation.

Section 258 of the NIRC covers what the law calls “unlawful pursuit of business.” Anyone who operates without proper registration faces, on conviction, a fine of ₱5,000 to ₱20,000 and imprisonment of six months to two years. For businesses handling excise-taxable products such as alcohol or tobacco, the range rises to ₱30,000 to ₱50,000 in fines and two to four years of imprisonment.¹⁵ Willful failure to file returns or pay taxes due carries a minimum fine of ₱10,000 and imprisonment of one to ten years under Section 255, and the BIR does not have to prove intent to evade; willful non-filing when you were supposed to file is enough.¹²

1
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Revenue Regulations No. 7-2024
2
Chan Robles Virtual Law Library. National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 – Title III, Chapter I
3
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Application for TIN of Local Employee
4
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Online Application for Registration of Nonresident Foreign Corporation
5
Bureau of Internal Revenue. BIR Form 1901 – Application for Registration
6
Bureau of Internal Revenue. BIR Form 1903 – Application for Registration
7
Bureau of Internal Revenue. How to Register a Business Through NewBizReg Portal
8
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Online Registration and Update System Taxpayer Job Aid
9
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 038-2026
10
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Annex C – Schedule of Compromise Penalties
11
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Authority to Print
12
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Penalties for Late Filing of Tax Returns
13
Bureau of Internal Revenue. BIR Form No. 1905 – Application for Registration Information Update/Correction/Cancellation
14
Bureau of Internal Revenue. Application for Closure of Business
15
Chan Robles Virtual Law Library. National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 – Title X