Five-year validity period for PTUs and receipts/invoices removed by BIR

The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) has announced the removal of the five-year validity period of the Permit to Use (PTU) and the system-generated receipts/invoices. This makes it so that all issued PTUs will be valid unless revoked by the BIR.

This change is implemented through the release of Revenue Regulations (RR) 6-2022; it acts as a follow-up to  RR 18-2012, which originally regulated the five-year validity period on Authority to Print (ATP). It authorised the printing of all invoices and receipts, however, certain taxpayers state that this practice caused them in incur additional costs in printing new sets of manual receipts/invoices when the validity period lapses despite the remaining inventory of the receipts/invoices.

Additional inconveniences arose due to the five-year validity extending to Cash Register Machines (CRMs), Point-of-Sale (POS) machines and other sales receipt system software following RR 10-2015. Furthermore, applying for renewals/re-issuance of their PTU will stack added burdens to taxpayers once the five-year period transpires.

The change to the validity period also follows Republic Act (RA) No. 11032, or the “Ease of Doing Business and Efficient Government Service Delivery Act of 2018”, which has mandated the BIR to consistently revisit its business policies to further improve, streamline, and reduce the financial burden to its clients

Taxpayers affected by RR 6-2022

Following the provisions of Section 244 of the National Internal Revenue Code (NIRC) of 1997, these regulations will apply to the taxpayers applying for the items below:

1. ATP Official Receipts (ORs), Sales Invoices (SLs) and other Commercial Invoices (Cis) based on Revenue Memorandum Order (RMO) No. 12-2013.
2. Registration of Computerized Accounting System (CAS)/Component of CAS based on Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No.10-2020, RMC No. 5-2021 and RMC 9-2021.
3. PTU CRMS and POS machines based on RR No. 11-2004 and RMO No. 10-2005.

RR 6-2022 Guidelines and Policies

RR 6-2022 includes several guidelines and policies to take into consideration when utilizing the receipts/invoices that have had their validity period removed, these items have been listed below for your convenience:

A. The RR states that the five-year validity period of the PTU and/or system-generated receipts/invoices based on the aforementioned revenue issuances is hereby removed, hence all PTUs to be issued shall be valid unless revoked by the BIR on grounds which shall include, but not, limited to the following:

1. Tampering of Sales Date Integrity of the data and/or software specification/features to alter/avoid the recording of a sale transaction.
2. Any major repair, upgrade, integration and modification/alteration without prior notification and approval by the BIR office concerned, including the items enumerated in Section V, Item No. 8 of RMO No. 9-2021, to wit.
   • Change in the functionalities of the system, particularly on enhancements that will have a direct effect on the financial aspect of the system including modified computations and other financial-related issues that we considered.
   • Addition or Removal of modules or submodules within the system that will have a direct impact on the financial aspect of the system.
   • Change in the system/software Version or Release Number that will have enhancements on the financial aspects of the system.
   • All other enhancements that will be deemed as a major system enhancement based on the recommendation of the technical evaluators of the BIR.
3. Any violation on the politics and procedures for registration under RMO No. 10-2005 and RMO No. 9-2021, and other related revenue issuances.  

B. The RR highlights the phrase “THIS INVOICE/RECEIPT SHALL BE VALID FOR FIVE (5) YEARS FROM THE DATE OF THE PERMIT USE” as previously required under RR No. 10-2015 as amended by RR No. 6-2018, and the phrase “VALID UNTIL” required under RMC No. 107-2019 will now be OMITTED at the bottom portion of system-generated receipts/invoices.

C. The RR then explains that the ATP principal and supplementary receipts/invoices inclusive of its serial numbers and its usage shall also have no expiration, thus, the phrase “THIS INVOICE/RECEIPT SHALL BE VALID FOR FIVE (5) YEARS FROM THE DATE OF THE ATP”. and the phrase “Valid Until (mm/dd/yyyy)” on the manual receipts/invoices previously required on RMO No. 12-2013 shall be OMITTED (or DISREGARDED for unused receipts/invoices)

Receipt/Invoices changes

The RR then provided several updates on how receipt/invoices type will be affected by the five-year validation change, these are as follows:

For Manual Receipts/Invoices with ATP

The validity date and phrase clarified in the “Guidelines and Policies” section of the regulations printed on the unused manual principal and supplementary receipts/invoices shall be disregarded and the same may still be issued until completely exhausted.

Further, the next printing of manual receipts/invoices once the effectivity of these regulations will not reflect the phrase mentioned in the “Guidelines and Policies” section, and thus will not adhere to the five-year validity.

For Receipts/Invoices Generated from CAS, Component of CAS with PTU or AC

All system-generated receipts/invoices that were issued with the phrases were previously required under RR No. 10-2015 as amended by RR No. 16-2018 and RMO No. 9-2021, and RMC No. 107-2019 based on the previously approved system/software with the proper PTU/AC shall be disregarded; however, the said system/software generating such receipts/invoices must be reconfigured to omit the said phrases.

For Receipts/Invoices Generated from CRMs and POS machines with PTU

All system-generated receipts/invoices that were issued with the phrases mandated under RR No. 10-2015 as amended by RR No. 16-2018, and RMC No. 107-2019, based on the previously approved CRMs and POS machines with corresponding PTU will be disregarded. But the system or software generating these receipts will undergo configuration to omit these phrases.

RR 6-2022 Effectivity Date

The BIR concludes the RR by explaining that the regulations it described will be taking effect fifteen (15) days after its publication in the Official Gazette or in a newspaper of general circulation.