THE Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has imposed stricter accreditation requirements on electronic invoicing service providers (ESPs), requiring their systems to secure approval before they can be used for taxpayer transactions.
Under Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) 110-2026, the bureau established a framework covering the technical, operational, security, data governance and legal requirements that providers must meet to offer electronic invoicing and related sales-reporting services to businesses.
“While meeting our technical standards is essential, your business model must also be built around taxpayer-centric service,” BIR Commissioner Charlito Martin Mendoza said on Wednesday.
The circular covers providers offering electronic invoicing, electronic sales reporting, system integration, data storage, validation, middleware and related services to taxpayers.
It prohibits electronic invoicing service providers from commercially deploying, activating or providing their solutions for taxpayer use unless the systems have been accredited by the BIR and the providers hold a valid Electronic Invoicing Solutions Accreditation Certificate.
Mendoza said the circular requires ESPs to remain transparent and be reasonable with fees.
He said that charges should be fully disclosed before taxpayers are onboarded.
“Please do not use the mandatory nature of electronic invoicing as a reason to charge excessive fees,” Mendoza said.
The bureau said the circular “aims to ensure that the e-invoicing solutions of ESP are reliable, interoperable, secure, auditable, financially and operationally sustainable, and capable of protecting taxpayer information.”
Under the rules, electronic invoicing solutions must keep invoice and sales data continuously accessible to both taxpayers and the BIR.
Records must be “retrievable, summarized, exported, transferred or migrated in complete, accurate and machine-readable formats.”
The circular also would prevent unreasonable vendor lock-in, the loss of access to taxpayer records and the withholding of information by service providers.
