REVENUE REGULATIONS NO. 11-2022 issued on June 30, 2022 prescribes the guidelines
and procedures for the spontaneous exchange of taxpayer specific rulings.
The International Tax Affairs Division (lTAD) of the Bureau of Internal Revenue
(BIR), through its Exchange of Information (EOI) Section, shall be responsible for exchanging
the taxpayer specific rulings to the foreign tax authority of the potential exchange jurisdictions
on or before the prescribed deadline. The rulings within the scope of the transparency
framework include the following:
i. rulings related to a preferential regime;
ii. cross-border unilateral Advance Pricing Arrangements (APAs) and other crossborder unilateral tax ruling (such as an Advance Tax Ruling) covering transfer
pricing or the application of transfer pricing principles
iii. cross-border rulings giving a unilateral downward adjustment to the taxpayer’s
taxable profits in the country giving the ruling
iv. PE rulings; and
v. related parts conduit rulings
The Philippines shall use the template designed by the Forum on Harmful Tax Practices
(FHTP) and the Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) (Annex A
of these Regulations). Revisions of the template shall always be adopted by the Philippines so
long as it is practical and not burdensome on the part of the tax administration.
Type of Ruling Potential Exchange Jurisdiction
Rulings related to certain
preferential regimes
i. The countries of residence of all related parties (a 25%
threshold would apply), with which the taxpayer enters into
a transaction for which a preferential treatment is granted
or which gives rise to income from related parties
benefiting from a preferential treatment (this rule also
applies in a permanent establishment (PE) context); and
ii. The residence country of (a) the ultimate parent company
and (b) the immediate parent company.
Unilateral APAs or other
cross-border unilateral
rulings in respect of
transfer pricing
i. The countries of residence of all related parties with whom
the taxpayer enters into transactions that are covered by the
APA or cross-border unilateral tax ruling; and
ii. The residence country of (a) the ultimate parent company
and (b) the immediate parent company.
Rulings providing for a
downward adjustment of
taxable profits
i. The countries of residence of all related parties with whom
the taxpayer enters into transactions covered by the ruling.
ii. The residence country of (a) the ultimate parent company
and (b) the immediate parent company.
PE rulings i. The residence country of the head office, or the country of
the PE, as the case may be; and
ii. The residence country of (a) the ultimate parent company
and (b) the immediate parent company.
Related party conduit
rulings
i. The country of residence of any related party making
payments to the conduit (directly or indirectly);
ii. The country of residence of the ultimate beneficial owner
(which in most cases will be the ultimate parent company)
of payments made to the conduit; and
Type of Ruling Potential Exchange Jurisdiction
iii.To the extent not already covered by ii) the residence
country of (a) the ultimate parent company and (b) the
immediate parent company.
Upon the effectivity of these Regulations, the EOl Section of ITAD shall ensure that
the information to be exchanged is transmitted to the relevant jurisdictions in accordance with
the following timelines:
i. for past rulings, as soon as possible after identifying the potential exchange
jurisdictions; and
ii. for future rulings, as soon as possible and no later than three months after the
issuance thereof.
It shall likewise ensure that subsequent requests by another jurisdiction for a copy of
the taxpayer specific ruling is responded to, or a status update is provided, within 90 days upon
receipt of such request.
Rulings may either be exchanged via registered mail; or encrypted electronic mail
(email). The EOI Section shall always ensure that rulings and information provided via email
are password-protected. Moreover, in choosing the mode of exchange, the EOl Section shall
consider the policy of its treaty partners.
For the Philippines, past rulings that fall within the scope of the transparency framework
pertain only to PE rulings or rulings concerning the existence or absence of a PE of a foreign
enterprise in the Philippines that were issued either: i) on or after 1 January 2015 but before 1
September 2017; or ii) on or after 1 January 2012 but before 1 January 2015, provided they
were still in effect as of 1 January 2015. Future rulings refer to rulings issued after such periods.
If the past ruling does not contain sufficient information to enable identification of all
the relevant countries with which the information needs to be exchanged, the Rulings and
Mutual Agreement Procedure (MAP) Section must apply the “best efforts” approach to identify
them. This includes the following:
i. checking of information included in the file supporting the tax treaty relief
application (the “ruling file”), BIR Form No. 1709, any relevant transfer pricing
documentation, if available;
ii. obtaining information from the domestic withholding agent, foreign taxpayer or
its representative in the Philippines, the Securities and Exchange Commission or
other possible information holders; and
iii. any other manner leading to the determination of the needed information.
All requests for information related to exchange of past rulings shall be signed by the
Assistant Commissioner for Legal Service (ACIR-LS).
The offices responsible for the issuance of the taxpayer specific rulings mentioned in
Section 5(b) of these Regulations shall take the necessary measures to ensure that all potential
exchange jurisdictions are identified swiftly for all future rulings. This may require the
amendment of the ruling process, if necessary, the amendment of the BIR Forms that must be
submitted by the taxpayer when requesting for a confirmatory ruling, and the inclusion of
transfer pricing documentation as part of the documentary requirements, among others.
Nothing shall prevent the Bureau, however, from requesting other relevant documents
from the domestic and foreign taxpayers to obtain information on the potential exchange
jurisdictions, in addition to the usual documents that must accompany every request for
confirmatory ruling pursuant to existing revenue issuances. All requests for information related
to exchange of future rulings shall be signed by the respective heads of offices.
The classification of future rulings originating from the ITAD that are subject to the
spontaneous exchange of rulings, and the identification of, and gathering of information on the
potential exchange jurisdictions shall be the responsibility of the Rulings and MAP Section of
ITAD. After classifying the rulings to be exchanged and identifying the potential exchange
jurisdictions, the Rulings and MAP Section shall immediately transmit the ruling file to the
EOI Section. The office that issued taxpayer specific rulings other than those originating from
ITAD shall be responsible for ensuring that that all potential exchange jurisdictions are
identified swiftly for all future rulings.
For the purpose of exchanging rulings, coordination between that office and ITAD shall
always be made. The ruling file, with a summary of the potential exchange jurisdictions, shall
be transmitted to the EOl Section of ITAD in a secure manner within thirty (30) days from its
issuance. The Chief of ITAD shall initially review and supervise the implementation
framework to ensure that all relevant information on the identification of rulings and potential
exchange jurisdictions is captured adequately. The final review shall be done by the ACIR-LS
who shall also sign all documents related to the spontaneous exchange of rulings to the relevant
foreign tax authority.
The EOI Section of ITAD shall be responsible for receiving rulings spontaneously
exchanged by its treaty partners. If it is established, upon evaluation, that the ruling will aid the
tax examiners in their tax investigation, a copy thereof shall be immediately forwarded to the
Revenue District Office (RDO) having jurisdiction of the domestic taxpayer. For monitoring
purposes, the RDO shall always provide the EOl Section feedback on the usefulness of the
information provided by the foreign tax jurisdiction within thirty (30) days from the termination
of the tax investigation.
In the spontaneous exchange of tax rulings, the EOl Section shall be guided by the
confidentiality rules contained in the EOl provision of the Double Taxation Agreements,
Section 270 of the National Internal Revenue Code of 1997, as amended, Republic Act No.
10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012), and of existing revenue issuances.