Current Status of the Philippines’ EIS Trial Phase

The Philippines introduced its Real-Time Reporting trial in July 2022 as an initial phase toward a broader e-invoicing requirement. Since then, the trial program has encountered difficulties that cast doubt on its future.

In July 2022, the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) initiated the Electronic Invoicing/Receipting System (EIS) trial phase. Selected participants were required to report their invoices electronically within three days to the EIS platform in a structured JSON format.

Originally, BIR planned to include 100 major taxpayers in the trial and then expand this group to include:

• Exporters of goods and services;
• E-commerce operators;
• Taxpayers under the Large Taxpayers Service (LTS).

However, the trial has faced challenges with onboarding participants and technical issues with the EIS platform, such as bugs, errors, and downtime.

On November 15, 2023, BIR announced to all EIS stakeholders that the platform is experiencing issues and is effectively pausing the trial until further notice. With no additional updates from BIR, the trial's future remains uncertain, leaving open the possibility of resumption, cancellation, or reformation of the program.

There’s more you should know about e-invoicing in the Philippines – learn more about the new and upcoming regulations.