Shopee Philippines: All Sellers Must Register with the BIR to Conduct Business
Jayson 11 Mar 2024 11:00
The Shopee Philippine site recently announced that in order to maintain the fairness of tax obligations between physical stores and e-commerce merchants, the Philippine Bureau of Revenue (BIR) issued BIR Tax Regulation No. 16-2023 on December 27, 2023. .
The regulations require local e-commerce sellers to pay a deductible withholding tax of 0.5% of total sales. In addition, all e-commerce sellers are required to register with the BIR to conduct business on the e-commerce platform.
The tax regulations only apply to sellers/taxpaying entities whose total annual revenue in the previous tax year exceeds Php 500,000 or whose cumulative revenue in the current year exceeds Php 500,000; stores whose annual gross revenue does not reach this threshold will be exempt from withholding tax.
Sellers may also obtain exemptions based on other existing laws or agreements (e.g. tax exemption certificates and documents); the minimum threshold of P500,000 will be spread across all stores under the same taxable entity. Once the cumulative revenue of all associated stores exceeds this threshold, withholding tax will be applied to all stores.
The regulations require local e-commerce sellers to pay a deductible withholding tax of 0.5% of total sales. In addition, all e-commerce sellers are required to register with the BIR to conduct business on the e-commerce platform.
The tax regulations only apply to sellers/taxpaying entities whose total annual revenue in the previous tax year exceeds Php 500,000 or whose cumulative revenue in the current year exceeds Php 500,000; stores whose annual gross revenue does not reach this threshold will be exempt from withholding tax.
Sellers may also obtain exemptions based on other existing laws or agreements (e.g. tax exemption certificates and documents); the minimum threshold of P500,000 will be spread across all stores under the same taxable entity. Once the cumulative revenue of all associated stores exceeds this threshold, withholding tax will be applied to all stores.
