THE BUREAU of Internal Revenue (BIR) has stopped requiring online sellers to post the Registration Seal Badge, but badges already displayed online can still lead buyers to the BIR’s verification page. Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 113-2026, dated Oct. 26, suspended the mandatory display “until further notice.” It sets no new deadline, and “no penalties shall be imposed solely on account of non-display” while the suspension lasts.
Last Sunday, I wrote about the badge for the roasted coffee we sell online through our corporation. When I scanned it, verify.bir.gov.ph showed our company name and a valid certificate of registration (COR). For a sole proprietor, the same scan shows the owner’s full legal name. The suspension followed calls from Sens. Bam Aquino and Pia Cayetano and weeks of complaints from sellers and creators. In the House, the Makabayan bloc filed House Resolution No. 1565 on Oct. 28, seeking an inquiry.
Commissioner Charlito Martin Mendoza said the BIR heard the “concerns of online sellers, content creators, and other taxpayers regarding data privacy, technical issues, and the scope” of the requirement. “We will work with the National Privacy Commission and consult affected taxpayers and stakeholders,” he said.
In a press release dated Oct. 26, the National Privacy Commission (NPC) said it issued a Notice to Explain to the BIR on Oct. 21, five days before the suspension, “in light of the privacy concerns raised by stakeholders.” NPC officials met Mendoza at the BIR National Office on Oct. 26. The NPC said government objectives “must be accompanied by appropriate safeguards” consistent with transparency, legitimate purpose and proportionality. “The Commission remains committed to constructive interagency engagement while independently exercising its regulatory mandate under the DPA,” Privacy Commissioner Johann Carlos Barcena said, referring to the Data Privacy Act.
The circular lets sellers who already have badges keep them up “at their option.” The BIR said more than 52,700 CORs with badges had been secured as of Oct. 14, the Philippine News Agency reported. This week, I scanned an influencer’s badge on Facebook. The verification page still showed the owner’s full name, with the Taxpayer Identification Number partly hidden.
A sole proprietor selling from home who worries about strangers finding her full name can remove the badge now and face no penalty. Our corporation’s badge shows a company name, so the risk is different for us. We are keeping our badge up next to our License to Operate from the Food and Drug Administration.
Buyers who still see a badge on a shop page need to check it. A screenshot of a genuine badge on a fake page still opens the real BIR page and says the registration is valid. Before paying, buyers should make sure the link opens verify.bir.gov.ph and that the name on that page matches the shop and the GCash or bank account. If anything doesn’t match, hold off until the seller explains. If you suspect a scam, report the shop to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center’s 1326 hotline.
Here are three fixes for the review. First, for sole proprietors, the verification page should show the registered trade or business name in place of the owner’s name and hide the TIN entirely. Sellers without a trade name should be able to add a store name in the Online Registration and Update System (ORUS).
Second, each badge should point back to the shop that owns it. If sellers listed their shop links or handles in ORUS and the verification page displayed them, buyers could spot a badge copied onto a fake page because it would point to a different shop. Sellers would need an easy way to update that list when they change handles or platforms. In an Oct. 23 statement, Scam Watch Pilipinas urged the BIR to work with digital platforms on safeguards that “link registration records to actual business accounts, prevent unauthorized use of badges, and enable swift action against impersonators.”
Third, the BIR could work with Shopee, Lazada and TikTok Shop to check a seller’s registration behind the scenes and show a “BIR-registered” tag on the shop page. Buyers would get a check without the verification page exposing the owner’s full legal name. This is similar to the central verification system Antonette Aquino proposed in her open letter to Mendoza and to the platform cooperation Scam Watch Pilipinas called for.
The NPC can help by publishing the outcome of its Notice to Explain and asking for a privacy impact assessment before the badge returns. If the BIR changes the badge requirement, it should not charge sellers again for the P30 documentary stamp tax they already paid to update their registration.
“We recognize that protecting personal information online presents different and more complex challenges than displaying a COR at a physical business establishment,” Mendoza said. The BIR now has time to address those differences. Before it requires the badge again, sellers should have a way to prove they are registered without exposing their full legal names, and buyers should have a way to check that the badge belongs to the shop they are paying.
