Bureau of Internal Revenue

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) issued the following:

Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 113-2020, 14 October 2020, amending the effectivity date of Republic Act (RA) No. 11467 (An Act Amending Sections 109, 141, 142, 143, 144, 147, 152, 263, 263-A, 265, and 288-A, and adding Section 290-A to RA NO. 8424, as amended, otherwise known as the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, and for other purposes), as circularized under RMC No. 65-2020, to 23 January 2020 or the date of its publication in the Official Gazette website.

RMC No. 114-2020, 25 September 2020, providing that the use of BIR Form No. 0605 is no longer an authorized payment form for Excise Tax on Sweetened Beverages. Sweetened Beverages taxpayers manually filing BIR Form No. 2200-S shall use the eFPS facility for filing and payment with the adoption of the following guidelines/procedures:

In the first three (3) scenarios, the tax returns filed are for 16 July 2020. Since the tax returns for 16 July 2020 were filed first before filing for 15 July 2020, a reminder message will pop-up to notify the taxpayer that an amended return for 16 July 2020 may be necessary as it may affect the balance for the succeeding day.

As part of transitory activity, the following shall be accomplished by both eFPS and manual filers:

1.    AII Sweetened Beverages (SB) Taxpayers should reconcile their existing balances of deposits/advanced payment with Excise Large Taxpayer Field Operations Division to set-up the amount that will be reflected on the filing of BIR Form No. 2200-S.

2.    The BIR Form No. 2200-S reflects the existing balance of the taxpayers as a whole company and not on a per plant basis. A sub-record, however, shall be maintained by the Head Office reflecting deposits, removals, and applications of payment per plant as part of the Liquidation Report for reconciliation and monitoring.

3.    As for the filing for deposit/advanced payment, the taxpayer has the option to either file using:

a)         The address of the Head Office, as illustrated in Case I; and

b)         The address of a specific plant, as illustrated in Case llI.

4.    The cut-off time shall be established with 11:59PM as default but the taxpayer has the option to use their existing cut-off time with notification to ELTFOD for record purposes. Hence, the enumerated activities shall be observed:

a)         Collecting the data of removals for the whole day (12:00AM - 11:59PM) of a certain date and file its return on the following day immediately, using the date the collection of data was made; and

b)         Using the current cut-off time per taxpayer - e.g. 5:00PM cut-off time and the data of removals from 5:01PM shall be filed for the next day.

5.    The tax returns should be filed on the following day immediately, except for return dates falling on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Holidays and during downtime of eFPS site, returns of which can be filed on the next business day. System downtime shall be logged through the help desk for confirmation/validation with the Information Systems Group (ISG) by ELTFOD.

6.    Taxpayers are still required to submit their weekly Liquidation Report via email from their dedicated address to sb.attachment@bir.gov.ph.

This Circular shall take effect immediately.

RMC 115-2020, 9 October 2020, informing concerned stakeholders that Certificate of Zonal Values of Real Properties shall only be issued by the concerned Revenue District Offices having jurisdiction over the property location and the same shall be used by the applicant in their transactions with other government offices or private entities.

Certifications that shall be used for the purpose of securing assistance in the computation of taxes relative to One Time Transaction (ONETT) with the BIR, such as Estate Tax, Donor’s Tax, and Capital Gains Tax, etc. shall no longer be processed as said certificate is not among the requirements from the applicant in securing assistance in the computation of taxes related to ONETT nor a requirement in the issuance of Certificate Authorizing Registration (CAR).

BIR processing offices are directed to access the applicable zonal values posted in the BIR website or by clicking the “Zonal Values” under the Quick Links in the BIR Website-Home Page. The concerned Revenue Officer shall generate a screen print-out that will serve as the supporting document of the computed tax due for purposes of securing the approval of the authorized Revenue Official.

Securities and Exchange Commission

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued SEC Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 29, Series of 2020 dated 13 October 2020 providing for the guidelines of the submission and monitoring of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Program (MTPP) 

• The MC shall apply to all Covered Institutions (“Covered Persons”) as defined in SEC MC no. 16 series of 2018, the 2018 Guidelines on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating of Financing of Terrorism for SEC Covered Institutions (the 2018 AML/CFT Guidelines  
• All Covered Persons registered after the effectivity of the 2018 AML/CFT Guidelines but before the effectivity of this MC and who have not yet submitted their MTPPs/revised MTPPs shall submit within two (2) months from the effectivity date of this MC, the hard and soft copies of the MTPPs duly approved by the Board of Directors or by the country/regional/area head or its equivalent for local branches  of foreign covered person to the Anti-Money Laundering Division of the Enforcement and Investor Protection Department (AMLD-EIPD)  
• A Covered Person registered or issued its secondary license on or after the effectivity date of this MC shall also submit hard and soft copies of its MTPP in accordance with its undertaking in a sworn certification.
• The MTPP supersedes the Anti-Money Laundering Operating Manual or SEC MC No. 2, series of 2010. 
•  The MTPP shall no longer be included among the documents requirement to be submitted to the Company Registration and Monitoring Department (CRMD) by Covered Persons applying for registration and issuance of a secondary license  
• In lieu thereof, an applicant Covered Person shall submit, together with its application, a sworn certification signed by the Compliance Officer, Corporate Secretary or Resident Agent that the applicant’s MTPP has been prepared, noted and approved by the Board of Directors or by the country/regional/area head or its equivalent for local branches of foreign covered person to the AMLD-EIPD  
• The sworn certification shall include an undertaking that the applicant shall submit hard and soft copies of the MTPP to the AMLD-EIPD within ten (10) days from receipt of its Certificate of Registration and/or secondary license from the SEC  
• Financing Companies (FCs) and Lending Companies (LCs) whose minimum paid-up capital shall, at any time, reach PHP10,000,000.00 or whose foreign equity shall reach more than 40%, must submit copies of their MTPPs to the AMLD- EIPD within sixty (60) days from the fact that foreign ownership threshold or the minimum paid-up capital has been reached 
•  An FC or LC that has reached the minimum thresholds for capitalization or foreign equity that qualifies it as a Covered Person, shall continue to do so even if such capitalization or foreign equity is later on reduced to less than the minimum capitalization or foreign equity unless otherwise declared by the SEC.
•  Failure to comply with the MC in the revision and submission of the MTPP shall subject the Covered Person to penalties provided under the 2018 AML/CFT Guidelines.
  
• The MC shall take effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in two (2) national papers of general circulation and its posting in the SEC website.
  

The MC was published on 5 November 2020 in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and Manila Standard.

Attached are the full texts of the issuances.

Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 113-2020

Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 114-2020

Revenue Memorandum Circular No. 115-2020

SEC Memorandum Circular No. 29, Series of 2020

Annex A of RMC No. 113