What BIR expects from an online seller

"Are you registered?"

Carla's cat-food shop, Kuting Kitchen, just shipped its 100th Shopee order. Over dinner a friend asks: "Are you registered with BIR?"

Most online sellers start the same way: selling first, asking later. This section is the short answer to what BIR actually expects.

Three jobs

To BIR, a Shopee shop is a business like any store. Every business has the same three jobs:

1. Register, once, and again whenever something changes. 2. Record every peso in and out, every day. 3. File and pay on fixed dates: monthly, quarterly, yearly.

The whole course follows these three. Lessons 1–2 are Register, 3–5 are Record, 6–8 are File and pay.

Job 1: Register

You register with BIR on or before your first sale, not after you "get big". Marketplaces now ask for your BIR certificate (Form 2303) before they let you sell.

You also register what you'll use: your books and your invoices. Lesson 1.2 reads a 2303 line by line.

Job 2: Record

Every sale gets a sales invoice with your registered name, TIN and an unbroken number. Since 2024 the invoice is the only document you need: official receipts were retired.

Then every peso in and out is written in your books: sales, purchases, payouts, rent, salaries. Lesson 3 shows how.

Job 3: File and pay

Each tax on your certificate means a return on a fixed date, filed even in a month with no sales, and paid on time.

Late means extra: a 25% surcharge plus 12% interest a year, and a fine. Micro and small taxpayers pay less, 10% and 6%, but they still pay. Lesson 6.1 lays out Kuting Kitchen's whole year.

The books run through all three

The books show up in every job: you register them before you use them, write in them every day, and close them each year, on dates set by BIR.

Register once, record daily, close yearly.

Under all three: keep the proof

Keep every invoice, receipt, 2307 and filed return, for as long as BIR requires. If BIR ever asks, the proof is what answers.

The online extras, job by job

Register: show the BIR Registration Seal Badge on your store pages and business social media, by 31 October 2026, and set up e-invoicing (Lesson 2).

Record: the marketplace withholds 0.5% of what it pays you and gives you a Form 2307. Record it: it's an advance on your income tax (Lesson 5). From 31 December 2026, online sellers that aren't micro taxpayers also send their invoices to BIR electronically.

File and pay: claim those 2307s on your income tax returns.

Pop Quiz: which job is it?

Sort these six into Register, Record, or File and pay.