The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has recently issued Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 91-2023 on September 11, 2023, to inform taxpayers regarding the amendment issued by the Department of Trade and Industry and Department of Finance to detail the period of enjoyment of non-income related tax incentives of RBEs registered prior to the implementation of Republic Act (RA) No. 11534, also known as the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act.
Pursuant to the amendments to Rule 18, Section 5 of the Implementing Rules and Regulations of the CREATE Act, VAT exemption on importation, duty exemption, and VAT zero-rating on local purchases of goods and services that are directly attributable to and exclusively used in the registered project or activity are benefits that registered domestic and export businesses may continue to take advantage of.
Registered export enterprises, whose income tax-based incentives may have expired, may still benefit from VAT zero-rating on local purchases until the BIR’s electronic sales reporting system is fully operational or until the transitory period expires, whichever comes earlier. Export enterprises are one of the taxpayer categories required to register to BIR’s electronic sales reporting system.
Further, RBEs classified as Domestic Market Enterprise (DME) located inside the economic or freeport can register as a VAT taxpayer and are not allowed to claim VAT refund for transactions that occurred before the rule took effect.
These rules shall be applied prospectively and will take effect immediately.
Please be guided accordingly.
Source:
P&A Grant Thornton
Certified Public Accountants
P&A Grant Thornton is the Philippine member firm of Grant Thornton International Ltd.
As published in SunStar Cebu, dated 09 October 2023
