REVENUE MEMORANDUM CIRCULAR NO. 3-2019 issued on January 10, 2019 publishes the full text of Joint Circular No. 001-2018 of the Department of Finance (DOF), Department of Budget and Management (DBM), Bureau of Treasury (BTr), BIR, Bureau of Customs (BOC) and Commission on Audit (COA) relative to the VAT refund claims. The Joint Circular shall cover payment of the following VAT refunds:
a. VAT refunds solely issued by the BIR pursuant to Section 112 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997 (NIRC), as amended;
b. Import VAT-refunds solely issued by the BOC pursuant to Section 112 of the NIRC; and
c. VAT Drawback on Importations issued jointly by the BOC and the One-Stop Shop Inter-Agency Tax Credit and Duty Drawback Center pursuant to the provisions on Duty Drawback and Refund of Republic Act No. 10863 (Customs Modernization and Tariff Act).

The BIR and BOC shall notify the BTr, not later than 15th of January of each year, of the initial amount to be transferred from the General Fund to the Trust Account and of the final adjusted amount not later than the last day of February of the current year, which shall be equivalent to the 5% of the total VAT collection of the preceding year, as duly reconciled by the collecting agency and the BTr. The guidelines for the withdrawal of deposits from the BTr are specified in the Joint Circular.

The BIR and BOC, with the concurrence of BTr, shall ensure payments for Tax Refunds described under Section 2 of this Joint Circular. Said agencies shall ensure and facilitate processing of claims and issuance of checks due to the concerned taxpayer-claimants to the amount of their claim for tax refund, net of any outstanding VAT delinquencies.

They shall submit to BTr, DBM and DOF a monthly report of actual VAT refund claims and disbursements/utilizations on or before the 8th day of the ensuing month. The DBM shall ensure timely release of the Notice of Cash Allocation upon receipt of complete documentation requirements from the collecting agencies.

The DOF on the other hand, shall deduct the equivalent to five percent (5%) of the preceding year’s total VAT
collection of BIR and BOC from the revenue targets of BIR and BOC.